Old Light: Songs from My Childhood and Other Gone Worlds

Rayna Gellert’s great-grandfather was a Hungarian-born orchestral violinist whose career path led to a gig on a transatlantic cruise ship where, so the story goes, he parlayed a performance of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ into an invitation from the American ambassador to visit the US. Two generations later, Rayna’s father, Dan, carved a path through the then-fledgling old-time scene using the same instrument his grandfather played, which now belongs to Rayna. Old Light showcases Gellert’s exquisitely refined fiddling and distinctively mellow voice. An unusual collection of acoustic instruments accompanies Gellert with graceful sympathy, especially Nathan Salsburg’s guitar. With a couple of notable exceptions, a pervasive sense of melancholy imbues the ten tracks, which include original compositions and new arrangements of traditional songs. Nowhere is this ghostly ambience more keenly rendered than on ‘The Cruel Mother’, a murder ballad that finds Gellert drawing out dark ambient drones on fiddle, viola and organ while Andrew Heller’s Moog guitar transports the listener into a melodically beautiful ethereal dimension. A spooky waltz (‘The Fatal Flower Garden’) and an offieat foxtrot (‘Old Bangum’) perpetuate the mood on this finely crafted and soulful collection of Americana.