Shame

If Nashville singer and multi-instrumentalist Rachel Baiman's debut solo album were a time of day, it would be a warm early evening with the sun waning over the Cumberland River. If you want a record to make you feel good inside, this is it. It has the gentle swagger and loping stride of classic American country music, but with a connoisseur's appreciation of folk, bluegrass, gospel and the blues.
Having spent four years touring as one half of the Nashville duo 10 String Symphony, Baiman has now teamed up with Mandolin Orange's Andrew Marlin on this project. Marlin produces and plays a fistful of instruments, while the pair are joined by Josh Oliver on guitar. Baiman is an arresting fiddle player – as demonstrated in the lead break on the title-track. She also plays banjo, though there are also a couple of standout contributions from banjo player George Jackson. Save for a take on Andy Irvine's ‘Never Tire of the Road’, these are self-penned works broadly concerned with social justice – yet they are in no way preachy. Rather, the subjects are treated with a sensitivity and lyrical beauty, interspersed with a well-judged humour that lets the light in – as on the wonderful closer ‘Let Them Go to Heaven’ based on a poem by the American writer Ishmael Reed.