Beth Rowley - Little Dreamer
Bristol singer’s debut, feat. Sweet Hours, Nobody’s Fault but Mine
Aug 19, 2008
Beth Rowley is blessed with a beautiful, angelic and yet smokily soulful and powerful voice. ‘Little Dreamer’ packs a punch, particularly with its several old blues style, moody numbers, and with its strong country and gospel influences.
Rowley hails from exotic origins. Born in Peru to missionary parents who preached in Lima and Cuzco, she was brought to England when she was just two years old. Settling and growing up in the less exotic surroundings of Bristol, Rowley was infused with a quality musical education. From Emmylou Harris to the Beatles, Hank Williams to gospel legend Mahalia Jackson, Rowley’s influences are classic old quality, deeply styled and pivotal to her ageless sound.
Blonde-haired Angel of Blues
She’s spectacular at the old smokin’ blues tracks, ‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine’ and ‘Only One Cloud’ in particular she delivers with an epic quality that calls to mind the soulful Otis Redding along with the power and passion of inner city gospel divas.
She reclaims all the old tortured territory of the blues but manages to find sunshine too. Country-blues, gospel-styled ‘When the Rains Came’ is uplifting and pretty mesmerising. She is truly the lightning in a sultry Southern thunderstorm.
This isn’t the only weapon in Rowley’s arsenal. She can do pure, innocent bluesy angel too. With her Karen Carpenter-esque vocal on ‘So Sublime’, the listener would be forgiven for thinking they’d stepped into the 70s. But to listen to Rowley is to listen to a multiplicity of influences wrapped with a contemporary twist.
Bob Dylan and Duke Special
Take her cover of Dylan’s ‘I Shall Be Released’: a reggae beat, if not entirely true to Dylan’s original, complements Rowley’s soaring voice beautifully, and lends a defiant positivity to the track’s survival theme. It’s clear she’s is still finding her sound, testing her range, experimenting with style, arrangement and melody.
It’s interesting and in many cases fruitful. The duet with Duke Special on ‘Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground’ is a little cheesy, but still soars, with Beth’s vocals proving to be sometimes quirky, often original, and always enchanting.
The album ‘Little Dreamer’ needs to be bought, considered, shelved for a while, revisited and then utterly adored.
Not a ‘love at first sight’ relationship by any means, but one that grows, changes and is more meaningful and lasting for that fact. Rowley is vintage quality, and worthy of your time investment. A wholehearted convert, I am seriously speculating whether she could virtually single-handedly bring about a real blues renaissance…
‘Oh My Life’ and ‘Sweet Hours’
However the album isn’t problem free. Rowley has a tendency towards a comfortable pace in her melodies. It would be nice to see more of the gentle variation found in ‘Beautiful Tomorrow’. ‘Oh My Life’ has a sound that has already been put to much better use by Winehouse, (perhaps contributing to Beth’s frequent description as one of Winehouse’s also-rans, but then again, which female artist isn’t reduced to that these days?)
It’s difficult to connect with Rowley’s poppier tracks, where her voice seems to lack the raw emotion she naturally conveys in the bluesier ones.
‘Oh My Life’ and ‘So Sublime’, both single releases, put her in danger of being branded disappointingly generic. These melodies can tire quickly, feeling ready-made for one of Richard Curtis’ more forgettable movies. Meanwhile, the new single, ‘Sweet Hours’ , is bland, uninspiring, and if it succeeds at all, will be carried by vocal prowess alone.
Verdict
‘Little Dreamer’ offers some truly attention-worthy moments, born from a richly incorporated blues heritage that lends depth and soul to Rowley’s exceptionally beautiful voice. However, her album betrays a lack of confidence and a reliance on seemingly safer, but ultimately disappointing, tracks for single releases, bewildering to anyone who appreciates the scale of her blues talent.
A choice will no doubt arise for the singer as she continues along this intriguing journey: to be or not to be Pop. For my part, I would rather see her build her unique story from the rich blues roots she was clearly born to sing. Those old smokin’ blues….
The new single ‘Sweet Hours’ is released on August 11th. The album ‘Little Dreamer’ is available now.
