Dear Sister

The 59-year-old singer, songwriter, session vocalist and bandleader Claire Lynch recently signed with Compass Records after a long 18 years and seven albums with Rounder. While long-term fans won’t find anything new here, Dear Sister nevertheless cements Lynch’s reputation as one of Americana’s most accessible voices.

The album’s ten tracks include poignant ballads (the title-track, co-written with Louisa Branscomb, being the standout example), rollickingly romantic numbers (‘Doin’ Time,’ ‘I’ll be Alright Tomorrow’), heart-rending love songs (‘Everybody Knows I’ve Been Cryin’), and zippy bluegrass set-pieces. There are plenty of showcases for the instrumental prowess of Lynch’s band, which includes Mark Schatz (on bass, banjo and percussion), Matt Wingate (mandolin and guitar) and Bryan McDowell (guitar, mandolin and fiddle).

The most energetically engaging track on the album, ‘Buttermilk Road/The Arbours,’ kicks off with a hambone beat – the Afro-American body-patting percussion technique – expertly performed by Schatz, over which Lynch presents a snapshot of a wistfully recalled, idyllic backwoods hamlet. ‘The snow falls soft on Bleeker Street, she sings, ‘the sage and the wood-smoke in my coat always takes me home.’ The song’s light-hearted reverie skips forward with all the intensity of a hoedown, neatly complementing Lynch’s clear, piercing soprano voice and her band’s empathetic affinity for the material.