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Review

Every critic, if truth be told, loves to have artists like this up their sleeve. When people are raving about Dido, or whoever the current flavour of the month is, you casually say "Yes, but have you heard …..", knowing full well that the answer will be no. Texan Eliza is just such an artist, and she's been turning out brilliant records now for over ten years at least, of course on several different labels. Inevitably they have Mark Hallman at the controls, and are recorded at the home of great Americana, Austin Texas. I first became aware of her Legends of Rainmaker album for the ill-fated Gold Castle label back in 1989, a truly excellent album scuppered by the premature bankruptcy of the label. She's been around a bit since then, but hopefully now has settled at Red House where she can get the kind of recording budgets she needs to turn out minor classics like this. As you may have gathered I'm a fan, and so too are Johnny Walker and Bob Harris of BBC Radio 2, who have both played tracks from this album several times on their shows. I suppose it's too much to hope that she'll actually tour here, but in lieu of that buy this and play it often. This is one of those records that shouldn't be categorised, as any attempt at doing that may put off some people from listening to it, and that would be a pity. It may not be easy to find, but if you like good music as opposed to 'pop' then do yourself a favour and check this out. Even if you decide not to buy it, your life will be richer for the experience.
source: Colin Jones, Folk World