01 November 2010 - 0 Comments

If a person is a sum of ones parts, and ones parts include their output and abilities, then Eva Prowse is one complex lady. A proficiency in violin, mandolin and piano coupled with exceptional folk-pop warblings has seen her lend talents to, and collaborate with a myriad of musicians. She has toured with the internationally renowned Fly My Pretties and The Royal New Zealand Ballet, accompanied The Family Cactus and Ricky Boyd and The Boomshack Band, and opened for musical maven Wanda Jackson. If this wasn't enough to cement her  formidable skill set, she is biologically fortunate too; her father is revered industry stalwart Chris Prowse, who recently won the Tui Award for Best Folk Album.

She has finally poured these talents and musical compatriots into an album of her own, and as such it speaks directly to the (modern) heart. Called, appropriately, I Can't Keep Secrets, the thirteen-track release is a personal ode to human trial and error (much of which one imagines comes from experience), and gallivants along in that dually melancholically optimistic way alternative country manages to embody.  'Youngest Child' opens with a gothic, all-encompassing landscape, only to burst into a guitar-driven pop song in which Prowse proffers some life advice against a backdrop of soaring violins, and is a becoming example of the rest of the album.

Such ambitious pop is only truly captivating, however, if the level of craft and production matches said intentions. Prowse needn't worry. With production duties care of the inimitable Samuel Flynn Scott and recording and mixing by Lee Prebble at The Surgery Studio (who both recently picked up gongs at the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards for such work), every instrument warmly emanates from its appropriate place in the mix. Those instruments are played by the likes of Samuel Flynn Scott (The Phoenix Foundation), Ryan Prebble, Ricky Boyd (The Boomshack Band) Tessa Rain (Fly My Pretties) and Rio Hunuki-Hemopo (Trinity Roots), and as such combine to create music for Prowse that wraps around the listener like a handmade patchwork quilt.

In fact, a handcrafted quilt - delicately constructed, cosy and homely - is a perfect way to describe Eva Prowse and her debut release I Can't Keep Secrets, and like said blanket, will undoubtedly become an indiscriminate favourite for some time.

Tour Dates -
Wednesday 17th November @ The San Francisco Bath House, Wellington
http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/utr/show/SID/15637/N/Eva-Prowse.utr

Thursaday 25th November @ Tabac, Auckland
http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/utr/show/SID/15638/N/Eva-Prowse.utr

Artist Website -
http://www.evaprowse.co.nz/

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