ROBERTA SMITH
Textile Lemonade
Already known to readers of Folk North West, self-confessed flower child Roberta Smith releases ‘Textile Lemonade’, a follow-up LP to her ‘Airs On A Sixstring’ EP.
Having won a major talent competition at the age of 16, and subsequently signed up by the same management company who looked after Esther & Abi Ofarim and Scott Engel, (Walker Brothers), yes we are talking some time back, Roberta has spent a lifetime performing, both musically, most recently supporting Saskia Griffiths-Moore, and as an actress, notably portraying Ann Boleyn in London’s St. Martin’s Lane, alongside having written original music for The Glass Menagerie, Cider with Rosie and The Graduate.
This latest album manages to cover a range of topics and emotions, both the personal and reflective, looking at the themes of betrayal and loneliness, love, both new and old, together with a humorous take on song-writing itself, but also at times taking a wider, social commentary perspective, as witnessed in the reference to climate change.
The influence of 1970’s singer-songwriters is clear in her own writing, albeit not slavishly derivative, indeed the format of her songs often veers from the conventional, in a good way, and lyrically there are often many surprises behind her delicate finger-style guitar playing. The album itself not only features Roberta’s guitar, piano, recorders, violin, shaker and vocals, but also the late Aeron Z Jones, who produced the release and to whom it is dedicated, and Chris Pepper.
Confession time, when I first saw the album’s track listing, I was intrigued to see that the opening track was entitled ‘Howling At The Moon’ and I immediately thought I was going to get an interpretation of Allan Taylor’s glorious tribute to Colin Scot. It is, however, a co-write with Boo Hewardine reflecting upon the effects of global warming on the polar ice caps, and very fine it is too.
With reflective pieces such as the wistful ‘I am Alone’, and ‘The Picture on the Wall’, which ruminates upon what it would be like if her husband looked at their wedding photo and couldn’t remember who they were, and ‘There Is No Light Like Your Light’, another one about her husband, from the point of view of a betrayed wife, Roberta has a knack of tugging at the emotions.
‘Let There Be Spaces’ and the love song ‘Shade and Shelter’ have glorious harmonies, as does ‘Old Clothes’, which reflects upon the fact that the best things aren’t always new, whilst Aeron’s contributions again come to fore on tracks such as ‘The Lost Song’ and the album’s closer, ‘Wizard aT The Window’, a wry comment upon the fact that whilst it is a wonderful blessing to be able to write songs, they sometimes become earworms and almost a millstone around the neck.
A brief comment should also be made with regards to the well-produced and illustrated CD insert, which adds to the overall package. Once again, with Textile Lemonade, Roberta’s songwriting show a depth, quality and maturity.
Textile Lemonade