This is a little gem of an album: simple, modest and, as far as I can tell, perfect. Jo Harrop sings, Jamie McCredie plays guitar, and the songs date from between the late 1920s and the early 2000s, from Billy Rose to Tom Waits. Nothing unusual there, you might think. However, what sets Weathering the Storm apart from similar offerings is that the duo get everything right, and that’s quite rare.
Harrop has a soft contralto voice which, particularly on lower notes, is wonderfully warm and intimate. Mostly, she trusts the song to tell its own story, occasionally altering or adding a phrase. The guitar accompaniment is light, almost skeletal at times, but always cannily fitting. There’s always space around the music, and this holds the listener’s attention – well, mine anyway.
All 11 songs are slow, or slowish, ballads and the calm mood settles them happily together. It’s an enterprising choice too: the rarely heard Early Autumn, Randy Newman’s Guilty, Legrand’s You Must Believe In Spring, etc. People remember albums like this, with their own unique atmosphere that you enter as you listen. Just what we need at this trying time.
