| Georgia Ruth — Week of Pines (2013) |
Georgia Ruth — Week of Pines
→ WINNER OF THE 2013 WELSH MUSIC PRIZE / “One of the most prodigious talents ever to grace my airwaves” — Adam Walton
→ Georgina Ruth is a blues folk musician who hails from Aberystwyth, Wales, and is in the ilk of Foy Vance and Joanna Newsom.
Location: Aberystwyth ~ Cardiff, Wales, Britain, UK
Album release: May 20, 2013
Record Label: Gwymon Records
Duration: 54:30
Tracks:
01 Week of Pines 5:49
02 Codi Angor 3:24
03 Mapping 5:20
04 Hallt 5:39
05 Dovecote 4:17
06 Seeing You Around 4:15
07 Old Blue 4:41
08 Etrai 4:27
09 In Luna 5:01
10 A Slow Parade 5:44
11 Winter 5:53
Description:
→ Raised in Aberystwyth, Wales, songwriter and harpist Georgia Ruth's haunting voice has earned her favourable comparisons with the melancholy folk sirens of the late 60s. → Recently, her single 'Week of Pines' garnered sterling support across the airwaves. → Steve Lamacq named her as his "Favourite New Band" on BBC 6 Music, whilst Jo Whiley picked the single as her "New Favourite Thing" in the same week on BBC Radio 2.
→ Writing in the Independent, Andy Gill called her album “a dazzling debut, rich with sweet pain and joy” whilst Simon Price noted that it “could have been made in 1968. In the loveliest possible way.” Folk Roots magazine noted that “while Sandy Denny, Bert Jansch and Van Morrison all linger on the horizon, Georgia Ruth comes over as more of a true original than most of the young hopefuls roaming these isles,” before concluding that the record was a “true delight.” Robin Derslow praised Georgia’s “exquisite, gently powerful” version of Welsh sea shanty ‘Codi Angor’ in his Guardian review.
REVIEW
By ANNE MALEWSKI; 13 June 2013
→ She has played Glastonbury and charmed radio presenters. BBC Radio Wales’s Adam Walton praised her as “one of the most prodigious talents ever to grace my airwaves”.
→ Georgia Ruth not only has a remarkable voice, as clear as Gemma Hayes’s and as mysterious as Sofia Jannok’s. She also plays her instrument of choice with endearing idiosyncrasy. Having learned classical harp as child, she pursues a more guitar-inspired fingerpicking style on her debut album.
→ On Week of Pines, dense yet intricate harp arrangements intermingle with guitars and a reed organ. The songs alternate between English and Welsh, for Ruth, born in Aberystwyth, was raised bilingually. Among the Welsh songs is the traditional sea shanty “Codi Angor” and among English tunes the Appalachian song “Old Blue”, once sung by Joan Baez. However, Ruth is at her strongest with her own material.
→ Take “Week of Pines”, for example, the title track, which opens the album. It begins by both musically and lyrically conjuring a “milky stillness” that evolves into a buoyant harp melody with a playful progression of words: “And so begins a week of pines / Baby, I’ve been pining for something in the ground”. It ends with “da da”s and a flurry of sound. By the way, the video shows Ruth climbing into the projections of a slide collection of mountains, plants and portraits. Brilliant.
→ Similarly evocative is “Mapping”, where someone “Made a map out of my skin / There’s highways on my shoulders”. Again, the ending is surprising: a hesitant pause and then a brief violin afterthought.
→ While “Seeing You Around” and “In Luna” cheerfully hover between forgetting and remembering in great escapist realism with unexpected imagery from iconoclasts and mountain storms to bones and Lancelots, “A Slow Parade” and “Dovecote” are darker ventures, stalking shadows and chiming in chilly reunions. The last track, “Winter”, reconciles these sentiments with gentle stock-taking.
→ The album was inspired by returning home to Wales after a spell in Brighton and London; it was recorded and produced in Snowdonia over six days in August. It shows: Week of Pines is a radiant exploration of home and memory with nature weaving in and out of the lyrics. From which you might well come away thinking: I do love a harp. → And so do the Guillemots, apparently, for whom Georgia Ruth has recently recorded some parts, as well.
________________________________________________________________
→ Georgina Ruth is a blues folk musician who hails from Aberystwyth, Wales, and is in the ilk of Foy Vance and Joanna Newsom.
→ Having already performed at numerous festivals including Glastonbury and Wales’ own Swn Festival, Georgia graduated from Cambridge University in 2009 and moved to London. Working for some time in Leicester Square underground station, she continued to write. Finally, after a year living Brighton, she came home to Wales and is now based in Cardiff.
→ In February 2012, she released the In Luna EP on limited 10” vinyl (via Gwymon). Playing songs on his Radio 1 show, Huw Stephens described the record as “exquisite”. Clash wrote that “there’s not really anyone comparable to her in today’s music scene’.”
→ In May 2013, she released her debut album — Week of Pines — on Gwymon Records. Recorded and produced by David Wrench over six days last August at Snowdonia’s Bryn Derwen studios, the record has received enthusiastic praise.
→ From the motorik drive of the title track, to darker Eno-like arrangements, the stark joyfulness of a Welsh sea shanty accompanied by wheezing reed organ, or the more wistful folk ballads: this is a varied and intriguing collection of songs.
Website: http://www.georgiaruthmusic.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/georgiaruth
Tumblr: http://georgiaruthmusic.tumblr.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgia.ruth.5
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/georgiaruthw
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/georgiaruth / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgiaruth
________________________________________________________________
| Georgia Ruth — Week of Pines (2013) |
Georgia Ruth — Week of Pines
→ WINNER OF THE 2013 WELSH MUSIC PRIZE / “One of the most prodigious talents ever to grace my airwaves” — Adam Walton
→ Georgina Ruth is a blues folk musician who hails from Aberystwyth, Wales, and is in the ilk of Foy Vance and Joanna Newsom.
Location: Aberystwyth ~ Cardiff, Wales, Britain, UK
Album release: May 20, 2013
Record Label: Gwymon Records
Duration: 54:30
Tracks:
01 Week of Pines 5:49
02 Codi Angor 3:24
03 Mapping 5:20
04 Hallt 5:39
05 Dovecote 4:17
06 Seeing You Around 4:15
07 Old Blue 4:41
08 Etrai 4:27
09 In Luna 5:01
10 A Slow Parade 5:44
11 Winter 5:53
Description:
→ Raised in Aberystwyth, Wales, songwriter and harpist Georgia Ruth's haunting voice has earned her favourable comparisons with the melancholy folk sirens of the late 60s. → Recently, her single 'Week of Pines' garnered sterling support across the airwaves. → Steve Lamacq named her as his "Favourite New Band" on BBC 6 Music, whilst Jo Whiley picked the single as her "New Favourite Thing" in the same week on BBC Radio 2.
→ Writing in the Independent, Andy Gill called her album “a dazzling debut, rich with sweet pain and joy” whilst Simon Price noted that it “could have been made in 1968. In the loveliest possible way.” Folk Roots magazine noted that “while Sandy Denny, Bert Jansch and Van Morrison all linger on the horizon, Georgia Ruth comes over as more of a true original than most of the young hopefuls roaming these isles,” before concluding that the record was a “true delight.” Robin Derslow praised Georgia’s “exquisite, gently powerful” version of Welsh sea shanty ‘Codi Angor’ in his Guardian review.
REVIEW
By ANNE MALEWSKI; 13 June 2013
→ She has played Glastonbury and charmed radio presenters. BBC Radio Wales’s Adam Walton praised her as “one of the most prodigious talents ever to grace my airwaves”.
→ Georgia Ruth not only has a remarkable voice, as clear as Gemma Hayes’s and as mysterious as Sofia Jannok’s. She also plays her instrument of choice with endearing idiosyncrasy. Having learned classical harp as child, she pursues a more guitar-inspired fingerpicking style on her debut album.
→ On Week of Pines, dense yet intricate harp arrangements intermingle with guitars and a reed organ. The songs alternate between English and Welsh, for Ruth, born in Aberystwyth, was raised bilingually. Among the Welsh songs is the traditional sea shanty “Codi Angor” and among English tunes the Appalachian song “Old Blue”, once sung by Joan Baez. However, Ruth is at her strongest with her own material.
→ Take “Week of Pines”, for example, the title track, which opens the album. It begins by both musically and lyrically conjuring a “milky stillness” that evolves into a buoyant harp melody with a playful progression of words: “And so begins a week of pines / Baby, I’ve been pining for something in the ground”. It ends with “da da”s and a flurry of sound. By the way, the video shows Ruth climbing into the projections of a slide collection of mountains, plants and portraits. Brilliant.
→ Similarly evocative is “Mapping”, where someone “Made a map out of my skin / There’s highways on my shoulders”. Again, the ending is surprising: a hesitant pause and then a brief violin afterthought.
→ While “Seeing You Around” and “In Luna” cheerfully hover between forgetting and remembering in great escapist realism with unexpected imagery from iconoclasts and mountain storms to bones and Lancelots, “A Slow Parade” and “Dovecote” are darker ventures, stalking shadows and chiming in chilly reunions. The last track, “Winter”, reconciles these sentiments with gentle stock-taking.
→ The album was inspired by returning home to Wales after a spell in Brighton and London; it was recorded and produced in Snowdonia over six days in August. It shows: Week of Pines is a radiant exploration of home and memory with nature weaving in and out of the lyrics. From which you might well come away thinking: I do love a harp. → And so do the Guillemots, apparently, for whom Georgia Ruth has recently recorded some parts, as well.
________________________________________________________________
→ Georgina Ruth is a blues folk musician who hails from Aberystwyth, Wales, and is in the ilk of Foy Vance and Joanna Newsom.
→ Having already performed at numerous festivals including Glastonbury and Wales’ own Swn Festival, Georgia graduated from Cambridge University in 2009 and moved to London. Working for some time in Leicester Square underground station, she continued to write. Finally, after a year living Brighton, she came home to Wales and is now based in Cardiff.
→ In February 2012, she released the In Luna EP on limited 10” vinyl (via Gwymon). Playing songs on his Radio 1 show, Huw Stephens described the record as “exquisite”. Clash wrote that “there’s not really anyone comparable to her in today’s music scene’.”
→ In May 2013, she released her debut album — Week of Pines — on Gwymon Records. Recorded and produced by David Wrench over six days last August at Snowdonia’s Bryn Derwen studios, the record has received enthusiastic praise.
→ From the motorik drive of the title track, to darker Eno-like arrangements, the stark joyfulness of a Welsh sea shanty accompanied by wheezing reed organ, or the more wistful folk ballads: this is a varied and intriguing collection of songs.
Website: http://www.georgiaruthmusic.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/georgiaruth
Tumblr: http://georgiaruthmusic.tumblr.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgia.ruth.5
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/georgiaruthw
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/georgiaruth / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgiaruth
________________________________________________________________