Hey Sammy

Hardy's debut album, Night Visiting, appeared ten years ago, and this is her seventh solo release. She has expanded her sound palette and lyrical focus yet again on a set of 11 songs written in Nashville, where she spent part of her time as a ranch hand, and on trips to Yunnan in south-west China. It's about as far as you can get from her roots in Edale, Derbyshire, where she started out as a self-taught fiddler and singer at the age of 13.

As is her wont, there are diverse musical styles here, unified by the key ingredients of absorbing lyrics, warm and emotive vocals and varied instrumentation. There's a spiky, syncopated beat to ‘Learning to Let Go’, while ‘Queen of Carter’s Bar', written with Peter Groenwald and Scottish pianist Tom Gibbs, is a vivid and atmospheric narrative. The title-track reflects on contemporary racial divides from a close, intimate perspective, while ‘You Don’t Owe the World Pretty' is a feminist champion of a song. The longest track, the closing ‘Stars’, is the album's most haunting and beautiful moment; the ethereal textures of ‘In My Dreams’ being the other highlight.