Kirsten Manville’s latest album Blossom In The Sun showcases this North Shore singer-songwriter’s flare for Americana roots music. Manville rocks thing up a bit with full band songs that sizzle with greasy slide, rhythm guitar, edgy lead guitar, and a fistful of groove. Other times she fills her song with tender sensibilities and some songs she executes with plucky, primitive acoustic energy. Each approaches completes the open heart honesty of her lyrical vision.
Opening cut “Whole Lotta Open Road” finds the singer-songwriter spreading her cool voice over a landscape of bluesy harmonica, honkytonk piano, and a lilting groove that makes one think of a vast travel lane out in the middle of the American heartland. Manville sets a scene of one person ditching their surroundings for a road trip to who knows where. She completely controls every nuance and kernel of note going on in this perfect assemblage of rootsie acoustic and bluesy electric instruments, filling in more lonesome soul in between the spaces left open by the sprawling instrumentation.
“Green-Eyed Daisy” lets Manville’s vocal flow smoothly over a backdrop of airy fiddle, misty piano notes, and a soft groove. Manville’s greatest strength on this number is her ability to fill the vocal space with a bright, wide line. She breathes even more energy into this glide of soft instrumental cloud. Manville maintains a central personality as her voice fills her lyrical message with something larger than life.
Manville’s piano ballad “Breaking Me” shows how well she can phrase vocally over a mid-tempo support. This singer songwriter sends her voice, her sustains out over her accompaniment like a songbird filling in the morning silence with something beautiful. Likewise, Manville fills in the space of this sparsely supported song with an airy confidence. Her voice hovers, suspended above light ivory tinkles and beside a string melody that sways with a meaningful presence in the foreground.
Manville’s jaunty, mid tempo joyride “There’s A Band Tonight” pairs her lovely run of vocal with a peppy rhythm section, bristling electric guitar phrases, and a lively, jumping fiddle. This singer-songwriter’s call to enjoy the simple things will likely go over well at her live gigs as it also gives this album a pleasant lift.
Manville sings her “Unbelievable” with a light, airy bounce. She carries the listener through her gentle acoustic strum, and flavorful flute accompaniment with a tender vocal application. A friendly guide through a garden of pleasant sounds, Manville keeps this as amicable as a warm, easy going chat with an old friend.
“I’m Gonna Go” walks slowly in with soulful touches of organ, acoustic guitar, and Manville’s soft whispery vocal. She adds her voice to the pleasant tuft of instrumentation, becomes one with its flow. It’s the motion that singer and support players bring to this piece that brings its tender lyrical sensitivity to the forefront. Juxtaposing as sweet voice with soulful plea of the music makes this song impact the listener in a special way.
“Family” sways in with a hip groove and a sly vocal that pivots around that groove. This one makes you want to snap your finger to its beats, its gypsy percussion, and its honkytonk piano tinkling. Manville makes this one feel like a prayer while she oozes with soulful applications of voice and philosophy. A tribal feel between lead and backing vocals and the rhythm section keep this perfectly anchored to the theme’s discipline.
A rootsie piano ballad, “Green Tomatoes” lets Manville stretch out over this down tempo crawler. While taking her sweet time unfurling her assertive voice, Manville moves through a landscape of greasy acoustic slide and darker guitar notes. And lonesome piano notes. Alluring, Manville is laying out a meal for a perspective partner, and every note she sustains and every tasty note alongside her suggests that there will be a lot to dine on.
Weepy, bluesy, “It’s All Over But The Cryin’” slowly builds into an incredibly strong expression of post-relationship melancholy dwell. A greasy lead guitar moves its notes around like like bacon in a frying pan. Just as tasty, that guitar line provides Manville a platform for her sweet vulnerability, a second line of sorrow that fulfills the mission of this song, serving up tender, after the fact feelings that linger like doubts in the dark of night. Manville’s experience must have been heavy, and she lets us feel it right along with her with an ability only the best singer-songwriters possess.
“American Voice” sprints in with whistling guitar, simmering organ chords, and lilting groove. Manville floats her voice over this landscape of feisty, Americana pluck, a vocal that sprawls out over all and sustains notes with power. Her song becomes an anthem, an empowerment of the many American idioms she sings of. This one succeeds on the way Manville and company keep increasing the voltage, the images fly by from her vocal expression as the musicians supporting expand this song into a rockin’ roots number.
Traveling along a considerate low end line, “Out Of Time” finds Manville singing with a jazz vocalist’s width of expression. Among the many fine things caught up in the span of this voice: sweet fiddle, tender mandolin, swaying accordion line, and a bright piano line. The notes flowing from these elegant instruments dot the wide swath of voice like stars in the sky. Manville keeps this deep, mournful, and tender, a strongly made statement that she makes it seem easy to state.
“Be With You” flows like a river. Manville floats her smooth, pretty voice over a traveling barge of loose, whistling lead guitar, acoustic guitar married to the percussion, and a bustling organ line. The frisky energy between instruments have their own shine as Manville singer her heart out to this lilting motion of sound.
Manville sings close out track “A Real Country Song” with sincere irony. She puts forth her earnest, heartfelt vocal and lyrics with mournful underpinnings. While describing the perfect country song, Manville makes you feel what this one is all about, a simultaneous release from and expression of pain. Lonely images of honkytonk bars, neon signs, beer pitches, and jukeboxes, buttressed by a firm, cutting acoustic guitar and a forlorn fiddle line keep the needed tenderness raw and exposed.
Produced by Brian Maes, who also serves as keyboard player here, at his Briola Studios in Lynn, Massachusetts, Blossom In The Sun achieves much. Captured in fine form is Manville’s voice. She reaches emotive depths with subtle shifts in expression. Possessing an ear for just the right sound, she knows when to lather a song with Americana roots tones, insert a tender fiddle, and rock right out with adventurous gusto. Manville gets some help from fellow musicians Jackie Damsky, Tim Foley, Kook Lawry, Mary Beth Maes, Tim Moynihan, Dave Simmons, Jack O’Soro, and Lori Wadkins. Bravo to all involved, especially Mr. Maes who gets it all down just right.
