Album Reviews: RED TREE

www.netrhythms.com
Having recently appeared on husband Bill's Sir Silence project, the Australian born singer-songwriter follows up with the second part of her own colour trilogy (the first being brilliant Blue), another intoxicating sophomore collection (again produced by and featuring Martyn Joseph) of airy folk, jazz, Americana, gospel and blues.
Joni, Tori, the Buckleys and Nick Drake were all touchstones last time around, and you'll hear them again here, Ms Amos especially so the fragile piano backed bluesy Moses Basket and the swirling leafy folk-soul of Something Aches. But you might want to also add a touch of Buffy Sainte-Marie spliced with Beth Orton on Please Don't Pass Me By (a song that borrows its tune from A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, coats it with violin and adds lines from Michael Rowed The Boat Ashore) and a spooked Natalie Merchant banjo on the banjo coined backwoods spiritual Liberty while, for some reason, Lately had me thinking of the crystalline purity and inner heat of Julia Fordham.
Taking folk music as her bedrock, the album weaves an eerie, otherwordly spell under which you can almost smell the dank vegetation and hear the insects beneath the soil, all of which links to the album's initial titular source of inspiration, an illustrated children's book by Shaun Tan exploring the fear and magic of childhood. Rachel's songs may use some childhood imagery, such as the rope swing of the title track, but they are very much infused with adult concerns and experiences. Listen to Something Aches portrait of a woman searching for answers to an emptiness inside and the world around her, the turbulent heart of What If I Said? and the self-assertion, self-liberation of the stripped back acoustic blues Today Is My Own.
An articulate, literate songsmith (how many do you know whose lyrics feature words like vehement or unbridled?) with a heady, hushed and husky voice (a times she's like Sally Oldfield gargling with cobwebs), this is a captivating and slightly inexplicably unsettling album, one you can almost imagine Arthur Spiderwick playing as he wrote his Field Guide.
(Mike Davies May 2008)

www.slow2fade.co.uk
Rachel Taylor-Beales has a talent for story telling, with an eye and ear for the ‘real’ world around her. The mix of Folk, Jazz, Country and Americana blends to create a sublime sound that stops you in your tracks. With a New album and a tour on the horizon it’s about time you got on the band wagon.starting here!

Gairrhydd
The second album by Rachel Taylor-Beales elegantly balances a number of contaradictions. It is haunting yet peaceful, heartfelt yet optimistic and gentle yet incredibly powerful. With influences taken largely from British folk and traditional tales, the artist brings out evocative and mysterious layers to the full in a refreshing way, often revealing Taylor-Beales second major influence, a children's storybook also entitled 'RED TREE' Both the text and the album confront issues of lonliness and depression and the album alludes to childhood, with images such as 'hope twists on a tyre swing' and the more sinister 'seems my innocence been slaughtered.' Like the book, the artist also refers to a long journey, translating childhood anxieties into issues relevant in the adult world. With Taylor-Beales' voice and lyrics being so passionate, Red Tree is definitely worth a listen.
(Amelia Forsbrook)

Taplas Magazine
The folk/non-folk beast raises its subjective head over Rachel Taylor-Beales' Red Tree (Hushland Records hushcd02)- the second album in a three part installation. But whatever your opinion on its category, it's undoubtedly a beautifully crafted collection. Evoking the wide-eyed wistful wonder of childhood, both melodically and lyrically, it will have you remembering or reconstructing you memories and perhaps your opinions too.

Big Issue Cymru
'Brooding Brilliance!'
(Alex Donohue)

Album Reviews: RED TREE

Irish Evening Herald
No "difficult second album" worries for Rachel Taylor-Beales. 'Brilliant Blue', the Cardiff-based singer/songwriter's 2007 debut, was a lovely piece of work, but 'Red Tree' -- the second in a planned colour trilogy -- is a more than worthy successor. Playing acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, piano and soprano sax with equal skill and grace, Taylor-Beales has also found some fine collaborators in fellow Welsh troubador Martyn Joseph, who produced and engineered the CD and guests on most of the tracks, and cellist Charlotte Eksteen among others. The consistently high standard of the writing and singing makes it hard to choose standout tracks: maybe the wry 'What If I Said?', with Joseph's slide guitar and lonesome harmonica echoing the song's wide-open imagery, or maybe 'Liberty', a bluesy number that ends with a gorgeously full-bodied hummed gospel chorus backed by tasteful banjo twangs. But oh, it's all good. Just have a listen and you'll see.
(Sarah McQuaid)

www.spiralearth.co.uk
If I ever found myself on a soul searching journey through the Australian outback this music would be a worthy companion. It's scorched emotional sentiment and warmly embracing melodies produce their own heat haze and wide horizon lines. It would be well suited to the harsh conditions as this isn't casual music but exquisite sounds murmuring from the out of the shadows.This is Rachel
Taylor-Beales second instalment in a planned trilogy of colour themed albums. Partly inspired by 'The Red Tree' story book written and illustrated by Australian Author Shaun Tan that charts one girl's journey of hope. It includes two tracks that were composed in collaboration with poet and BBC radio 4’s Broadcaster, Stewart Henderson, as well as one track written by Bill Taylor-Beales. Whereas in the studio she has been working alongside the Welsh troubadour, Martyn Joseph. Not only is he contributing on a multitude of instruments but he produces, mixes and engineers the whole affair. Part of the natural progression of Rachel's work is the emergence of a gospel and bluegrass hybrid. Something that was always strongly hinted at before has now reached fruition with 'Liberty' and 'Please Don't Pass Me By'. It's characterized by willowy patterns of notes and deft cello that cradle Rachel's smooth vocal tones. Elsewhere it's noticeable that the style of Rachel’s singing has altered, revealing bluesy inflections and a new found confidence. It focuses the emphasis on the all important narrative which is chosen over any conventional verse/chorus formats. Some of the evocative prose is wonderfully stark against the gentle arpeggios. The title track tells us that 'hope twists on a tyre swing' and elsewhere feelings are still frayed: 'like a part of me missing, like a part of me aching, like a part of me lost'. Charlotte Eksteen’s cello parts were the last to be recorded and I can only agree with Rachel that, ’her contributions have taken the album to another level'. For Rachel's own playing the guitar is often more favoured for this album yet she still holds some melodic trump cards at the piano. 'Something Aches' is a masterpiece of vocal phrasing with a strong dose of her trademark surges of bubbling notes, lapping at the edges of the words. Events build to a crescendo of searing emotional intensity on 'Lately'. A blunt piano note is repetitively hit as part of a stunningly moving coda where Rachel lets fly with 'God knows. Been running'. It's a courageous moment when an artist puts their creativity into the public arena and Rachel can be justifiably proud. As the boundaries melt away from her playing we can hear her creative intuition being met in perfect union with her technical abilities. It may be a turbulent world, with only chinks of light, and yet 'Red Tree' is a liberating listen. It should be welcomed with open arms, ears and eyes.

Folk in The Round Magazine
''Individual and compelling songwriting talent, with a striking singing voice to match.'
(David Kidman)