The songs! The voice! The dresses! The Halifax (via New Waterford)
modern folk songwriter, one-half of the fine duo Cassie Josephine and
Gabriel Minnikin, might do her own songs with calm and quiet, but the
effect is powerful and bold. With just guitar, some piano and violin,
and voices, she presents a batch of songs that define her identity and
character, her state of independence at an important life juncture. As
she tells us in Dear Cassie, a birthday letter to herself, she's hit the
big 4-0, and she's doing it with no regrets, and lots of interest for
the next 40.
Cassie Josephine's voice verges on
old-timey, with a little twang and a lovely high warble, all the better
for these gentle, contemplative songs. In the title track, a sad/happy
number about a sundering, she can't be bothered to waste all those
tears, so she'll go on, only half-blue. Alone again, she faces each day
the same way, with coffee at Tim's, in Large One Cream And A Honey
Cruller. But is that heaven or hell she wonders, the existential crisis
not really all that bad. Dear Cassie traces all her deeds and misdeeds,
opportunities taken and missed. All this looking back and contemplation
is done in a refreshing and kind-hearted way, as if the singer is given
the person absolution for being, well, human. It's hard to be good to
yourself, and very healthy if you can, and in its calm way it's very
much a feel-good album.
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