I get a lot of blind submissions for music to review, mostly because I\u2019ve been doing it so long. Many of them are true independent artists, doing everything up to and including manufacturing, distribution, and mailing.<\/p>\n
I find a lot of joy in this. I get to support someone who\u2019s outside the Big Label system, and I get to discover a lot of cool, wonderful music. Emily Maguire is an excellent example of same. She lives on a farm in the Australian Outback with her husband, some goats, and a lot of Australian wildlife, some of which won\u2019t even try to kill you.<\/p>\n
And let me tell you, friends, she has a magnificent voice on her latest CD A Light To Follow<\/i>.<\/p>\n
She falls somewhere between Paula Cole and Sarah Brightman. Her songwriting and its clever turns of phrase remind me of Cole, as does the power of her voice and her ability to control it. When she soars upwards on those high notes, though, she packs a punch much like Brightman. It\u2019s a lovely combination. In addition, she wrote all the songs, performed the keyboard, guitar and cello parts, did the string arrangements.<\/p>\n
Perhaps more astonishing, she has bipolar disorder, and is open and frank about her struggles with it. Quite often art flows out of adversity, and I am a big fan of being frank and open about mental health matters.<\/p>\n
But really, this review needs to be about the songs. And they\u2019re pretty damned good.<\/p>\n
There are no misses on Follow<\/i>. \u201cShe\u2019s Gone\u201d seems simple\u2014a song about a woman finally leaving\u2014but the intricate accompaniment and the dynamic range turn it into something very special. \u201cStay\u201d is a gentle, elegant ballad that reminds me of the best of Nanci Griffith. \u201cHow To Conquer\u201d addresses social inequality neatly, and the closing title track is a moving request for a space to live one\u2019s life and be safe. Few albums are perfect. This one comes very, very close.<\/p>\n
I cannot recommend A Light To Follow<\/i> highly enough. Take the time and make the effort to get your hands and ears on this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10840],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-46594","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-emily-maguire","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46594"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46594"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}