British-American singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson has a
pedigreed family and career, collaborating with Rufus and Martha Wainwright,
among others. Based in New York City, his musical influences cross folk, rock
and Elvis Presley. Kelly Jones is a singer-songwriter living in Los Angeles
whose background is more in the country vein. The pair first sang together in
LA club Largo in 2011 and, clearly, something gelled.
Now, together, they have created a jewel of an album – or,
rather, ten jewels of songs that make up Little
Windows. These songs are not appropriate for anyone intent on having a bad
day, because they can’t help but make the listener feel extremely happy, with
their Andrews Sisters-meets-country-and-folk structures and sounds.
Some songs, like ‘Don’t Remind Me’ and ‘As You Were’, sound
as though they’re being broadcast across the decades from the years after World
War II, but with less of a saccharine spin to the lyrics and a delightful play
of male and female voices rather than all female or all male. Thompson’s and
Jones’s singing styles aren’t as stylised as the singers from that era, and
that’s what gives these songs their modern bent. This is the twentieth century’s
version of classical music remade for a twenty-first century audience.
Several of the songs sound as though they belong on a front
porch at sunset, a guitar in someone’s hand and the performers indulging in the
sheer joy of singing with each other. In this way they honour the traditions of
country music while again reinterpreting them for an audience that may have no knowledge
of the genre. This is what happens when two seriously talented and experienced
musicians know how to work with their material and each other.
If you are someone whose day revolves around music – if you
wake up and go to sleep with songs on your mind, and find yourself distracted
by songs throughout the day – this album cannot help become a favourite. It is enchanting
and generous, as if Thomspon and Jones are giving the listener a gift that could
be snatched away if we don’t appreciate it properly. Happily, it’s a gift that
will stick around, for as many repeated listenings as you like, for many years
to come.
Little Windows is available
through Cooking Vinyl Australia.
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