A sturdy strum of acoustic, over which the electric guitars chime, more of that organ gilding the lily. Somebody’s New Lover Now follows as a classic tale of the discarded party, a bittersweet song of barbed acceptance. A handsome start and one that augurs well, the polish on the songcraft buffed up to perfect. Curls of tasty guitar seep out between her words, with soothing Hammond swirls covering all the other spaces. The album kicks off with You’ve Been Away So Long, her warm voice embedded in some pristine guitar and keyboard framings, the rhythm section a sturdy presence. Freebo produces and plays bass and McFarlane plays some timeless guitar. And that was where she returned to cut much of this second full length release. Hooked on the ambience, and drawing in inspiration from the walls of the venerated studio, the ghosts of all the greats looking in on down at her, that experience was pivotal. Second would be Will McFarlane, another Raitt alumnus, who took her to Muscle Shoals to lay down a couple of tracks. First amongst those is Freebo, a name familiar to students of the cosmopolitan and multigenred 1970s LA music scene, for so long the right-hand man and bassist for Bonnie Raitt.

Howe, with a 2019 debut disc, an EP two years ahead of that, is at that threshold, with the recognition and participation of a few influential players helping gel that transition. A lower register alto, it is all warm and comforting, the arrangements snucking in elements of both primetime AOR and R’n’B, making for an agreeable and engaging listen.īostonians with a degree in medieval European history don’t always seek futures in the music biz, and, if they do, few succeed. Unashamedly more akin to the stylings, and sound, of, say, Mary Chapin Carpenter than perhaps latterday Turks (Turkesses?) like the Margos Price or Cilker, it is the prime jangle, underset with keyboards, that gives, along with her voice, that particular feel. country? Sorry to use the old currency, but neither America nor plain country serve quite well enough an evocation of where Alice Howe is coming from.

Cocktail alice clayton