Review
Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine, Spring, 2004
by Mike Regenstreif
Over the course of four albums in the past decade, Nova Scotia’s Susan Crowe has developed into one of Canada’s finest singer-songwriters. Her lyrics are wise and crafted like fine poetry, her melodies are lovely and she sings in a beautifully expressive alto voice.
Several of the songs on Book of Days reflect a lost love relationship. In Dreamless, the opening track, Crowe vividly describes a bleak scene of autumn having given way to cold winter amid the absence of a departed lover. Then, in Do You Think on Me Still Kindly, she addresses the former lover and wonders if there are still feelings. A few songs later, in She Said No, Crowe seems to have her answer, one that saddens her. Although broken love affairs have lone been the stock-in-trade of countless singer-songwriters, Crowe’s songs on this theme have a rare maturity.
While I’m not sure whether Crowe’s songs of lost love are taken from her own life, they ring with honest authenticity. In some of the other songs, though, she seems to definitely be writing outside of herself, something she does equally well. In High Street, she seems to take on the character of an older and lonely alcoholic living a hard life. In Immigrant’s Lament, she sings to someone missing the life they had in a home they’ve left, and in If I’m Spared, which she based on a 1929 letter by Daniel Heighton of Pictou, Nova Scotia, she sings as someone who, for some reason, has lost and wishes to regain contact with old friends.
In addition to Crowe, the album features very tasteful backing from such musicians as John Sheard on piano and accordion, Jason Fowler on guitar and John Reischman on mandolin. Gwen Swick, Cindy Church and Liz Soderberg provide some gorgeous harmonies.
source: SingOut!
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