ALICE HOWE : CIRCUMSTANCE

1. You've Been Away So Long
2. Somebody's New Lover Now
3. Let Go
4. Love Has No Rules
5. Things I'm Not Saying
6. What About You
7. Something Calls to Me
8. With You By My Side
9. Line By Line
10. Travelin' Soul
11. It's How You Hold Me

Label : Know Howe Music

Length : 42:09

Release Date : April 21, 2023

Review (Americana Highways) : Recorded at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, this is Alice Howe’s 2nd studio effort. Produced by Bonnie Raitt’s 70s bassist Freebo (fretless bass/acoustic guitar & harmony vocals) & Newton, MA-born Alice (lead & harmony vocals/acoustic & electric guitar) the 11-cut Circumstance (Drops April 21–Know-Howe Music) finds Ms. Howe confidently performing in a studio where she was surrounded by the spirit of a place where legendary artists & musicians came before her. The collection proves FAME rubbed off on Alice Howe – it includes generous dips into Southern rock, country, folk, classic soul & the blues. Her writing sharpened by tranquil days in Vermont & her talent for observation & reflection shows in her expressive lyrics. An innovative singer-songwriter she can easily capture the ears of people who listen to music & not only dance to it. Many songs are personable with sensitivity & poignancy. Her voice has originality & an approach that lends itself to the well-sculpted repertoire. Her commanding, authoritative voice is not sugar-coated or mediocre. What I find extremely attractive is her ability to emphasize the right lyric with the right note & vocal timbre. That takes skill. Evident in the strong rocker “What About You” & “Somebody’s New Lover Now.” Exceptional country sparklers. Lots to like in these vibrant mixes of genres that are well-interpreted with masterful delivery & exciting tonality. Alice is augmented by superb musicianship & she comes across in a pulsating Mary Chapin-Carpenter/Kathy Mattea musical light. Alice’s expressive voice is smoothly refreshing like custard ice cream on a hot summer day. But it’s her skill with lyrics (any artist who uses the word “perspective” in a lyric is my kind of girl). There are virtually no cliches & each line’s treated with importance. Freebo’s supple arrangements — consistently sophisticated & with a loose contemporary brilliance. I have headphones, a cigar, my Old Crow sour mash bourbon, cheese & crackers – now I have to hope no one bothers me for 42 minutes while I listen to Alice. This is pure & delicious. One of 2023’s best albums – right here. Look no further. This isn’t just a singer – this is an artist. Musicians – Jeff Fielder (rhythm, slide & lead guitar/harmony vocal), Will McFarlane (electric guitar), Clayton Ivey (Hammond B3/Wurlitzer/electric piano), Mark Jordan (acoustic & electric piano), Justin Holder (drums/percussion) with Vinnie Ciesielski (trumpet/flugelhorn), Mike Guinn (tenor/baritone saxes), Marie Lewey & Cindy Walden.

Review (At The Barrier) : Who’s up for some feisty female alt. country? Sorry to use the old currency, but neither America nor plain country serve quite well enough an evocation of where Alice Howe is coming from. Unashamedly more akin to the stylings, and sound, of, say, Mary Chapin Carpenter than perhaps latterday Turks (Turkesses?) like the Margos Price or Cilker, it is the prime jangle, underset with keyboards, that gives, along with her voice, that particular feel. A lower register alto, it is all warm and comforting, the arrangements snucking in elements of both primetime AOR and R’n’B, making for an agreeable and engaging listen. Bostonians with a degree in medieval European history don’t always seek futures in the music biz, and, if they do, few succeed. Howe, with a 2019 debut disc, an EP two years ahead of that, is at that threshold, with the recognition and participation of a few influential players helping gel that transition. First amongst those is Freebo, a name familiar to students of the cosmopolitan and multigenred 1970s LA music scene, for so long the right-hand man and bassist for Bonnie Raitt. Second would be Will McFarlane, another Raitt alumnus, who took her to Muscle Shoals to lay down a couple of tracks. Hooked on the ambience, and drawing in inspiration from the walls of the venerated studio, the ghosts of all the greats looking in on down at her, that experience was pivotal. And that was where she returned to cut much of this second full length release. Freebo produces and plays bass and McFarlane plays some timeless guitar. The album kicks off with You’ve Been Away So Long, her warm voice embedded in some pristine guitar and keyboard framings, the rhythm section a sturdy presence. Curls of tasty guitar seep out between her words, with soothing Hammond swirls covering all the other spaces. A handsome start and one that augurs well, the polish on the songcraft buffed up to perfect. Somebody’s New Lover Now follows as a classic tale of the discarded party, a bittersweet song of barbed acceptance. A sturdy strum of acoustic, over which the electric guitars chime, more of that organ gilding the lily. Vintage stuff. I guess Let Go is more of the same, some classy piano and steel entering the fray, although whether she is speaking to herself or that same person is left unclear: “You’ve got to be strong to let go“. Love Has No Rules starts off with a delightful descending motif that screams Tom Petty, before becoming a decent swagger, the guitars all sounding slung low on the hip. Another song, as with Somebody’s New Lover Now, begs a punt on the singles chart, crossover or otherwise. Things I’m Not Saying is then a more sombre narrative, more stripped back, at least before the steel and keys ramp in, some muted brass accompanying them. The sort of sound that Muscle Shoals has built its deserved reputation upon. I think I have mentioned her voice, a smooth, warm rinse; let me mention it again. Proving she isn’t prepared to let this record drift into filler, What About You is another Petty-esque southern rocker, which is as good a time to say her band are well up to Heartbreakers calibre. So, a little more info as to who they are might be helpful. Bandcamp comes up trumps, relaying the info that, alongside the above mentioned Freebo and Fielder, it is Jeff Fielder on electric guitar, Clayton Ivey on most of the keys and Justin Holder on drums, grizzled session vets all. Additional piano on certain tracks comes from Mark Jordan. Something Calls To Me dips back into mellow, with hushed bvs; the structure is mindful of the song constructs of the recently late and lamented Croz. A slightly swampy choogle, it shows she has most of the alleys of American music covered. Great slide and electric piano. The brass boys then coast back for the light soul-pop of With You By My Side, Vinnie Ciesielski on trumpet, and Mike Guinn on sax. A girlie chorus is tacked on here, the first moment where the cocktail here rings slightly wrong, Howe’s tones not needing the anodyne gloop they provide. Line By Line struts a turn of direction that might just have some unison dance play in the bars of anywhere Georgia through Texas. Which is possibly the lyrical intent, and fair play to those that participate, but not so much my bag. It’s a fine tune, once I get that image out my head. Travellin’ Soul is more like it, another steamer from the swamp, a slow burn statement of intent, the drums a slow thwack to underline the road song lyric: “This is the life I chose, seekin’ truth along this road”. A final flourish, with It’s How You Hold Me, sees her channeling the full-on country ballad she has held back in reserve, showing her powder is plenty dry enough for lighters swaying in the sky. Sentimental? Sure, but that comes for free with this sort of ticket, and it is a corker. A top class retro bit of work, this should see Howe ascend the rungs of rootsy Americana fast. Get her over here, for Ramblin’ Roots, Maverick or Black Deer and she will make a lot of new fans quick. Over and above, that is, those this record will make her.

Review (Folking) : Born in Massachusetts, Howe already has two impressive releases to her name but Circumstance, with its cocktail of southern rock, country, folk, classic soul and blues, produced and mostly co-written by Freebo, who also plays fretless bass, could be the one to propel to the next level. Recorded in Muscle Shoals in Memphis in two separate sessions, the first in 2019, and featuring, among others Jeff Fielder and Will McFarlane on guitars, it actually opens with a punchier remodelling of the title track from her EP debut, the guitars chiming, twangy roots rock ‘You’ve Been Away So Long’, that now comes with an additional third verse, a resolution to make peace with the turmoil of the past (“When you’re in the moment it’s so hard to read the signs/You just need that perspective that you only gain in time/I’m just trying to build a life that lets me follow who I am”). The first of the seven co-writes, Clayton Ivey on Hammond B3 fills, is ‘Somebody’s New Lover Now’, a swaggery country pop-sensibility number about moving on and accepting (“Somethin’ inside of me changed/Maybe you’ll thank me some day/But I got to believe it somehow/You’re somebody’s new lover now”) while, anchored by Mark Jordan’s piano, ‘Let Go’ charts a similar path about realising that while it may not be over, it’s over for now (“I got to be brave/And believe that our story’s not done/That the answers will come/Though for now there are none”). With an intro that recalls Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’, there’s more of a sense of not letting go and rolling with what comes for the self-empowerment based ‘Love Has No Rules’ (“It’s a chance that we take/It’s a choice that we make/And I know I’ll find my way/Let it go and come what may/There’s nothing to prove”). Coloured with trumpet, flugelhorn and tenor saxophone a la classic Memphis R&B, ‘Things I’m Not Saying’ is a wistful, acoustic strummed, moved on but longing-tinged reminiscence of a past relationship (“I heard you been travelin’ heard you’re doin’ all right/That you got some new girlfriend, moving on with your life/But I’m still full of questions do you wonder too/Do you still save a spot for the things that I’m not saying to you”). At this point, you’ve probably realised this is a very much a post-break-up album, the past balanced against looking to move on and start anew, as in the catchy, twanging, uptempo walking beat ‘What About You’ (“I’ve been feelin’ kinda lonely lately/Eyes open for a soul in line with mine/I’ve been fooled by first impressions/But I’m hopin’ that I might be right this time/I’m picturin’ a rainy Sunday/Playin’ old records all afternoon/With somebody who loves me through and through/What about you?”) with its audience-friendly title refrain. Riding a nervy fingerpicked line, ‘Something Calls To Me’ has a bluesier, more swampy groove to go with the darker lyrics (“The sound brings back a memory/Raindrops echo in a dream/It’s an invitation and a dare/Something calls to me out there… Where I’ve been no tongue can tell/But when the rain begins to fall/I know that I will heed that call”). Marie Lewey and Cindy Walden providing the background vocal, sax and trumpet return for the swaggery soul uplift (“When you take my hand believe what I say/There is no mountain, there is no tide/That can change the way I feel with you by my side”) of ‘With You By My Side’, as Muscle Shoals meets ‘70s Philadelphia soul, positively making you want to raise your hands and testify. The following two numbers are both solo compositions, the first being the Hammond-anchored ‘Line By Line’, a Southern country soul number that evokes vintage Tanta Tucker with a self-recrimination lyric (“I stuck a knife into the life I had/Nobody made me do it and I blame myself…I’m guilty I got nothin’ more to say/I’m not a bad girl I’m just used to gettin’ my way”), the second, one of the earlier numbers, being the Gretchen Peters-like Southern Gothic groove of ‘Travelin’ Soul’ that, Fielder on slide, veins a similar line about being a self-willed spirit (“They ask me how I do it/I said I like the way it feels/This is the life I chose/Seekin’ truth along this road”) with a commentary on the ugly soul of contemporary America (“the towns that pass my windows/They all start to look the same/Overrun by corporate greed/Disguised as household names…It’s a bitter pill to swallow/The country that you love/Has a history of violence/That is written out in blood”). She ends with a slow waltz cover of Dayna Kurtz’s gospel honky tonk ‘It’s How You Hold Me’ (“strong and tender/Like it would hurt you to let me fall down”), a warm embrace send-off for an album that offers far more than circumstantial evidence of her burgeoning talent.

Review (George Graham) : Singer-songwriters come in a rich variety of musical personas, styles and general approach. Back in the 1960s, when the genre was being established with the folksingers of that era starting to do their own compositions, most of them took on the acoustic guitar-dominated folk sound, until Bob Dylan went electric. But that was over 60 years ago. There is still a fair number of acoustic-guitar strumming folkies plying their trade as singer-songwriters. But they do tend to go electric on occasion. This week, we have the new second album by a singer-songwriter who has gone for the classic electric sound, and gone to a classic studio to make it. It’s Alice Howe, and her new album is called Circumstance. Alice Howe has led a somewhat peripatetic life. She grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and was surrounded by her parents’ record collection of artists like Taj Mahal, Mississippi John Hurt, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell. That put her somewhat at odds with people of her own generation, but the music was always important for her. After graduating from Smith College with a degree in Medieval European history, she settled in Seattle, working in a music store, camping and playing local gigs on weekends. But with a relationship ended, she decided to concentrate on being a musician, and made an EP before leaving Seattle for going back to her home area. In her networking at folk conferences, she met bassist Freebo, who is known for his several years working with Bonnie Raitt, and also recorded with Jackson Browne, Ringo Starr and others. He was taken by Ms. Howe’s music and voice and the began a long collaboration. He worked with her on her 2019 debut album Visions recorded in California. On a cross-country tour, Ms. Howe made a pilgrimage to Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where everyone from Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones recorded. With Freebo, aided by some of the studio players there and another Bonnie Raitt alumnus, guitarist Will McFarlane, Howe recorded three complete tracks. She was about to return to record more when COVID hit, and the rest of the album was delayed by two years. But now it is out and it’s a tasteful combination of the lyrical introspection of folk-based songwriters with electric band backing. It doesn’t quite go all-out rock, but the backing usually has a couple of electric guitars, occasionally a blues feel along with some more acoustic moments. Ms. Howe’s breakup of her relationship, which precipitated her move Back East apparently provides the grist for several songs about separation, but there are also a couple of straight-out love songs, and one that considers the state of the world. In the band on this album, besides bassist Freebo, are guitarists Jeff Fielder, who worked with Ms. Howe on her earlier recordings, and Wil McFarlane, organist Clayton Ivey, and drummer Justin Holder. Opening is You’ve Been Away So Long, one of several songs about being apart from one’s significant other. Like much of the album, the musical backing is the tasteful rock that evokes the kinds of records that producer Freebo was involved with in the past like Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne. The track called Somebody’s New Lover Now puts a set of unhappy lyrics with a bouncy pop tune setting. I think it’s one of the highlights of the album. Another side of relationships comes on Love Has No Rules which in a different arrangement might make it as country song. What About You is more of straight-out rocker, and is more of a love song in the present tense lyrically. The recording venue, Muscle Shoals has been known for their classic soul sound. Ms. Howe takes advantage of that on the song With You By My Side, even adding a touch of Gospel influence. Taking a bluesier direction is Travelin’ Soul with more of the musical ingredients associated with the Muscle Shoals sound. It’s the one instance in which Ms. Howe’s lyrics comment on the state of the larger world. The confessional singer-songwriter side of Ms. Howe comes out on Line by Line which nevertheless is given a more electric treatment. It turns out to be another highlight of the album. Circumstance ends with a country-style waltz, It’s How You Hold Me taking things out in a note of true love. Alice Howe’s new second full album Circumstance is an impressive recording by a talented and literate singer-songwriter who is accompanied by some first rate musicians, in this album produced by veteran bassist Freebo and recorded in an iconic Muscle Shoals, Alabama studio which yielded many classic soul, rock and blues albums going back to the 1960s. The vibe is apparent on the record, and it blends well with Ms. Howe’s folkie background. Most of the songs are about relationships in various states, from straight-out love songs to breakup songs to songs in the aftermath of a breakup, something that Ms. Howe apparently experienced first-hand. It all comes together nicely. Our grade for audio quality is close to an “A” with a largely clean, warm, and punchy sound, that the Fame Studio has been known for. There is an almost endless supply of singer-songwriter records, but the genre is so universal and timeless that there is always room for more, especially if they are as high in quality as Alice Howe’s new release Circumstance.