Sian Chandler and Ray Hughes look and sound good together. Theirs is a marital and musical harmony born of a shared love of American Bluegrass and the English countryside.
In their acoustic based songs, water is a metaphor for the state of relationships whether it be in the manner in which a river flows or the rain falls.
In Strangers When We Meet, the title track, memories of people are "washed away in the rain" and some measure of consolation is taken from a heightened awareness of natural surroundings.
The couple are from Gloucestershire, and while they happily trade under the Americana banner, it is England's landscape that this song evokes.
The drama of 10,000 Times is a more intense affair. It is the one song in which Hughes' voice comes to the fore although he is still upstaged by his wife's powerful performance in which she sounds more like Grace Slick than Alison Krauss.
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Open Book restores us to gentle acoustic tunefulness and begins with the poetic image: "You are like the falling rain, soak the ground but never stain". The tenderness of You Will Be Mine maintains the pastoral mood.
After the melancholy refrains of the first four tunes, All Came Down, is an upbeat conclusion with its defiant challenge to negativity ("I'm sick and tired of feeling sick and tired").
Helped by some fine backing musicians, notably Anna Jenkins (viola/violin) and Evan John (mandolin) this is a confident debut EP with strong melodies enhanced by rich arrangements.
The Black Feathers' website
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