Linda Marks’ latest in a flurry of CD releases is titled Home, the album being a reflection on living through the pandemic. As she ruminates on her many associations of the concept of home, Marks carries us along with her lyrical insights, vivid descriptions, and a host of instrumentation that surround her lovely voice with engaging melodies, warm harmonies, and a special delivery all her own.
Title track “Home” opens the album with Marks’ wide sweeping vocal buttressed by a backing vocal from Mark Bishop Evans. An electric guitar melody widens the song even further, making Mark’s praise of home a warmer appeal. Cello moans the song’s backbone and the entire breezy affair benefits by its assembly of moving parts. Marks’ vocal, as usual, is a bright, pretty instrument of its own. Here, she just brushes the surface of the instruments with her voice, and a contrast with the instrumentalists’ tempo makes both shine.
“Dance Me Home” finds Marks using her lovely vocal sustains to build as much swaying motion as a violin that moves all around this piece. An acoustic guitar represent the stillness around which the motions happen. This triple interplay gives the song a looseness with a rhythmic underpinning which perfectly reinforces the dance theme of the song.
With a touch of Americana roots feeling, “In The Distance” captures forlorn emotions with its many nuances. A country fiddle line backed by a rustic flavored banjo, Marks struts her stuff with her piano in the backdrop. Her voice travels over the flinty accompaniment with a silky smoothness all her own. She soothes the listener with every sustain, encourages with every hopeful reflection.
“Wisdom Words” lets Marks do more with less. She only emits enough verse and image at a time to inject her personal rhythm into this. This technique feels more folk than singer-songwriter, and, that is the perfect approach to match the roots fiddle line greasing the song behind her. It all has a festive energy within its carefully considered, well paced delivery.
A weepy, forlorn pedal steel guitar line from Steve Latanision draws us into the emotive vibe of “I See You.” As if on cue, once the willowy guitar line drapes itself over the soundscape, Marks glides in with a soft, whispery voice, a secondary line of looseness. Voice and guitar weave beautiful patterns as Marks completes the artistry with an ode to recognition of someone or someones who mean a lot to her.
“Jazzin’,” likely the radio hit from this album, intrigues at many points. Mark’s flinty piano line, hovering vocal coos and a Dave Birkin saxophone line instantly draw the listener into this fun, engaging track. Marks turns her vocal coos into an instrument in and of themselves, an instrument that can keep pace with and entertain as much as Birkin’s ever so lofty horn phrase.
Marks, along with a violinist, turn “Shadows On The Ground” into an engaging series of darting piano lines and a firm, darker shadow behind the piano. As the sturdy musicianship progresses, Mark’s lead vocal becomes a familiar friend, someone guiding the listener through a landscape of shapes and shadows. She sings along to the tight musical framework with great consideration for each measure, only allowing enough of her lovely voice and interesting lyrics out at a time, keeping the listener following her as intended.
“Winter Sounds” celebrates the vicissitudes of New England’s most challenging season. Marks lets loose enough of her wit in each verse to keep the montage of images running through the listener’s mind. Her town plow blocks her into her driveway and her cats can briefly hide from her sight. Marks marries her vocal clip to her jaunty piano line as well as a bouncy fiddle line. This all comes together as one warm witty tribute to her coldest season.
“Marty And Ruth” is a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her mutually supportive husband. The couple began their relationship in college and was a picture book romance as well as a story of a couple who helped change the course of US. history. Marks conveys the love, romance, and historical weight of their lives all in one vocal expression, an assertion of warmth loosely wrapped with gentle yet serious violins.
“Nightmare In The Capitol” plays out in an understated manner that does not make one feel like they are in an urgent nightmare. Marks uses a subtle application of her pretty voice and her string accompaniment to lay out her concerns with the January 6th riots that riled the nation and which continues to divide us. While describing dire incidents, Marks looks at it through the eyes of a child, which is the second half of the songs’ title, “Nightmare In The Capitol-Through The Eyes Of A Child.”
“Finally Room For Me” indicates the positive aspect of having a partner walking out, the freedoms of being single. This song’s jaunty rhythm, a wedge of vocal, banjo, and piano chord slaps, lets Marks strike out with jabs of lyrical expression. It’s a cute piece that makes a strong point within a tight, enjoyable wrap.
Close out track “Be The Light” allows Marks to construct a spiritual anthem. She sings of rising above our current predicament as her persistent piano chords support that marching vibe. With subtle electric guitar playing moodily in the backdrop Marks maintains this strength of purpose and of sound straight to the end.
Marks has not only done it again, cranking out a second album in one year. She has tightened her sound, increased the techniques that give motion to her songs, and has learned to let go of her piano more often now to create a wider variety of song structures here. Meanwhile, Marks’ lyrics are a balm for the soul, reflecting on our dire times with insight and sensitivity while showing that the human heart is always going to be the light at the end of the tunnel. Not flying solo, Marks gets by with a little help from her friends Andy Daigle, Judy Daigle, Craig Akin, EJ Ouelette, Alice Hasen, Jackie Damsky, Steve Latanision, Valerie Thompson, Bo Winiker, and Joe Sabourin. All of the singers and players sound clear and natural as producer Doug Hammer was turning the knobs at his Dreamworld Productions studio.
