To Be Still - Alela Diane

Rating - 8.5

One of the predominant trends that emerged in indie music in 2008 was the re-establishment of the woodsman. Bon Iver (who’s newest EP landed in the Billboard top 20) recorded an album in his father’s Wisconsin cabin, while Fleet Foxes managed to tie Americana and traditional English Folk music together with a sound so overly drenched in reverb it felt like it was actually relaying down from the mountaintop. And while this trend will certainly bring undeserving attention to certain new acts, it will also shed light on those genuine carriers of the American Folk song tradition, who would have otherwise wallowed in obscurity.

One such artist, Alela Diane, a kindred spirit and woodswoman of the Pacific Northwest, just released her first official album on Rough Trade records, To Be Still. The album’s 11 songs are all centered around Alela’s rustic, effortless voice and finger-picked acoustic guitar. To her credit there are no gimmicks on this album- no Joni Mitchell impressions or Feist sing-alongs- and the result is one of the most authentic releases of the year.

The album’s opener “Dry Grass & Shadows” sets the pace, and introduces the themes that have dominated Alela’s career and continue on this release- earth, family, and the struggle to find a lasting love. But these themes exist, of course, as the shell of Alela’s world, and at times they are hardly discernable from one another. In “Age Old Blue”, a civil-war sounding duet with old folkie Michael Hurley, Alela sings “The sea beneath the cliff is the blue in my mother’s eyes/That came from the blue in her mother’s eye/Thrown all down the line” with the aged innocence of a woman singing the songs that she once heard as a child. The longing on this album is unavoidable, but we also get to see how someone born in the wrong century gets to deal with our over industrialized, beeping and blipping world. On the banjo laden “The Alder Trees” she’s “Laughin’/Little Girls Clappin’/Ghosts weavin’/Our hair to baskets,” reveling in the closeness.

To Be Still is certainly a more produced effort than the torch-songs of her self-released debut The Pirate’s Gospel (2006); but the percussion section never becomes distracting or abrasive, the various instruments (mandolin, banjo, contrabass) are fitting and never sound forced, and the introduction of light string accompaniment all come together seamlessly. True to form the record was produced by her father, who also tours with her, and most of the accompaniment was performed by him and several close friends of Alela. On the album’s closing track, “Lady Divine”, Alela manages to tie all her pursuits together into the beautiful eulogy “Those songs whistled through white teeth/Still scuff the day” followed by a charmingly whistled melody, a swell of acoustic instruments and, if you listen closely, the rustle of her mother’s footprints in the leaves. (3/15/09)