Rating: NNNN
The former Saddletramp gets back to her roots (sorry) with a warm, homespun country-folk album that seems far better suited to Harmer’s sweetly weathered voice than the breezy smoothed-over vibe of last year’s All Of Our Names. Some of these songs, like the galloping front-porch hoedown of the title track, have been in her live set list for years, and you can hear how wonderfully comfortable Harmer and her pals (including Crazy Strings bluegrass ace Joey Wright and Songs For Clem collaborator Jason Euringer) feel playing them. While the aching cover of Dolly Parton’s Will He Be Waiting For Me is dead on, the disc features some of Harmer’s finest writing in years: Goin’ Out is like a more optimistic take on You Were Here’s Hideout, and Escarpment Blues, an environmental protest song in the style of 60s hippie folk that inspired her I Love The Escarpment tour, avoids cloying dogma and preachiness in favour of celebrating natural beauty. Simple and doggone pretty.
