It’s been a month of Dunedin music for me, albeit accidentally, though certainly fitting with the month of May being the celebration of New Zealand music.
In this listening stint and a moment of clarity, I discovered the “Dunedin” sound, or so I had thought.
With a musical career longer than my life, Jay Clarkson probably knows more about the sounds of “Southern Edinburgh” than most, and from that comes Spur, an album with a soundscape far removed from the sounds I’ve heard of late.
Laidback and lofty, a sojourn through time and mood, Spur is a place where the airy melodies of Folk meet the subdued sch-clack of the Railroad Blues. For the most part acoustic, it is a vehicle for that Bob Dylan type storytelling and nostalgia.
As a collection of songs written over a period of four years, the songs tie together in some sort of love story, told through fleeting moments of observation, the ebb and flow of tide like moods conveyed through Clarkson's distinctive voice, and swelling finger-picking, culminating in the instrumental tumble-weed track Spur, which rounds out the album.
You can find Spur on the Jay Clarkson website, and if you like what you hear, look out for her contribution to the upcoming second Robert Burns tribute, the sequel to Ae Fond Kiss.
Having been writing songs and performing them for over a decade, Clarkson's individual style is well honed indeed. Her band Breathing Cage won the Rheineck Rock Award in 1989. Jay's musical influences include Roy Orbison and Roger Miller.