God Bless (Am)Erica, The Newest Listen Here! Artist

It was just about a year ago that I wrote here in FUFKIN about New York folksinger Rebecca Hall, and her fabulous debut album Rebecca Hall Sings on Listen Here! Records. And it was just about a year after first hearing of Rebecca that I first had the privilege of hearing another gifted female folksinger on the same label.

Listen Here! Records, which was launched in late 2000, is showing signs of becoming a standout label for New York City folk (anti or otherwise) singers. The label's roster, currently all female, showcases some of Greenwich Village's finest, and during the course of 2001, word of Listen Here! made the musical rounds, even approaching no less a folk notable as Roger McGuinn, who voiced his pleasure with the label's product. Listen Here! also demonstrates a sense of a family atmosphere, with labelmates helping each other out, guesting on each other's recordings. The result is a bunch of sincere New York folkies working together to revolutionize the New York folk scene.

Erica Smith, already a fixture on said scene, is the most recent addition to the Listen Here! roster, and her freshly released eponymous debut album is all the proof needed that 2002 is bound to be a positive one for the label.

The eight songs housed on this album are all basic folk arrangements, with either Erica wandering forth with an acoustic guitar as her armor, sometimes with violins keeping her company, or stepping out completely bare, with no instruments at all. But, like a handyman who knows instinctively which gadgets from his toolkit to grab to tend the nearest mechanical mishap, Erica has a keen sense of knowing which instruments, if any, are needed to best prop up the songs she chooses.

Erica calls things to order with a lovely acapella performance of a traditional minor key folk number entitled "The Snows They Melt The Soonest." This track introduces us, right at the start, to two of the stars of the Erica Smith show: One, her beautiful rich clear voice, which evokes thoughts of Joan Baez and Judy Collins, with a side order of Sandy Denny. Two, Erica's penchant for digging into the traditional songbook and presenting them to us like a world weary traveler displaying precious souvenirs acquired on a long journey. As a result, though Erica sings lyrics of 19th century England, it comes across as fresh, modern and personal.

Next, Erica picks up her acoustic guitar for the peaceful country waltz "Driftless." This too is a cover, but a more recent one, written and recorded by Greg Brown in 1994. Erica's take on it brings to mind an unfortunately underappreciated acoustic gem from the Monkees, "As We Go Along." As that 1968 track took us to a very special sunshine-laden place, it's nice to take another trip there. But instead of being an invitation to step into a free life, "Driftless" is a song of a need for assurance ("Have I done enough, Father, can I rest now? Have I learned enough, Mother, can we talk now? Will you visit mein my place of peace? I'm going driftless.")

"Fine Horseman" (written by the late Lal Waterson) is a minor-key journey on which Erica embarks with labelmate Rebecca Hall and her husband Ken Anderson (currently The Rooks' drummer) traveling by her side, providing some sweet backing vocals. Each verse adds another layer to the overall mood by way of changes in the arrangement. On the first verse Erica sings alone with her guitar. Second time around brings the introduction of Rebecca and Ken on the chorus. For the third verse, guest Rachael Birkin steps in with her trademark viola, here adding some haunting colors. On the fourth verse, the arrangement builds even further with a harmony voice on top of Erica's lead. By the time of the instrumental break, Rachael has two of her viola lines competing with each other. But Erica slows down the ride before we get off, by taking the sixth and last verse like the first, with just a lone voice and a lone guitar. This gentle return comes to a safe landing when she closes out the darkly tinted song with a strum of a reassuring major chord.

Rebecca Hall is represented on the next track as well. Though she does not perform on it, she is the author of "Come Around." Erica puts a noticeably different spin on the song compared to Rebecca's own version (to be released later this year on her Sunday Afternoon album), playing it a bit slower, adding a soft sweet harmony.

After "Come Around," we come around to the second acapella number of the album, an old spiritual entitled "No More My Lord." Here, Erica is joined by another guest, Alison Kelley, one half of New York's NexTradition. Kelley is actually the lead vocalist here, with Erica working right with her to put forth some chilling harmony on a goosebump-summoning track. Unquestionably, one of the album's standout selections.

Another is "Now Westlin Winds." This beautiful number, written by Robert Burns, is reminiscent of the early work of Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell. Despite its lyrics about Autumn, it actually evokes a summer kind of feel, with Rachael Birkin's violin peeking through onto Erica's beautiful acoustic guitar picking like rays of bright warm sunshine slipping though the tall trees.

Afterwards comes Erica's only self-penned number on the album, "Love You All The Way." Here it's a pleasant and gentle acoustic waltz, and works well as such. In concert with her backing group The Tumbleweeds, however, the song is rocked up a bit, sounding not unlike The Beatles' "Oh Darling."

Listen Here! artists seem to enjoy singing about the afterlife. Case in point, Rebecca Hall had her "On The Other Side." Well, Erica Smith, by way of songwriters Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, sings about, after leaving this planet, being able to recognize her savior "By The Mark" (where the nails have been.). But like Rebecca's song, this one has a singable chorus, and therefore makes for a fitting closer.

Erica is clearly an artist with a trunk full of ideas. This CD was her first lucky dip...and it looks like we're the lucky ones. May Erica go for another grab real soon.

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