Despite a very busy schedule at work,
today I began some much-needed holidays. I’ll be doing a bit of shopping, and some
chores I never get to because they require a free weekday. Before that,
however, let’s give the people what they want. If you’ve come here, that would
be a music review.
Disc 1887 is… Refuge Cove
Artist: Grace Cummings
Year of Release: 2019
What’s up with the Cover? Cummings looks like a starlet from Hollywood’s golden age as she smokes a cigarette and thinks about passion, the fleeting nature of mortality and just where in this Goddamn town you can get a passable Gin Rickey.
How I Came To Know It: I heard about Grace Cummings through her 2022 album “Storm Queen” which was also my #1 album of 2022 (for the full list click here).
“Refuge Cove” was impossible to find on CD so finally I broke down and downloaded it from Bandcamp.
How It Stacks Up: I have three Grace Cumming albums and they are all awesome. “Refuge Cove” comes in at #2. This being the final album in my collection (for now) here’s a full recap:
- Storm Queen: 5
stars (reviewed at Disc 1573)
- Refuge Cove: 5 stars (reviewed right here)
- Ramona: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1768)
Ratings: 5 stars
Every once in a while you encounter a voice that is so compelling, so majestic and otherworldly, that it pushes all other things away and demands your soul’s full attention. Grace Cummings has this voice. It helps that she’s also an exceptional songwriter meaning her songs also have something to say.
Cummings does folk music in the style of early Bob Dylan, when he’s at his most melodic. She paints pictures with her words that are grounded in unexpected imagery and big thoughts distilled down to simple truths. She has a bit more classical and jazz in the undercurrents of the writing than Dylan’s folk revival style, but the fact that you can mention her in the same sentence as a Nobel prize winner for literature should give you an idea of the talent.
As for the vocals, they are beautiful, but it won’t be what you expect. It is the vocal of a tortured ghost, a grieving angel, an open wound. It pours out off her in a way that feels almost involuntary, a low warble that coats each word it sings with a vibrant imminence. Once in a while she injects hurtful growl of a wounded beast, vulnerable and dangerous, but mostly it is just a deep emotional connection to every moment, every note.
I imagine some hearing Cummings approach to phrasing and melody might find it an acquired taste, something powerful and unexpected that might take a bit of listening to fall into. I would suggest that if you don’t fall into this stuff immediately then you need to lower your guard a little and let the feelings shine in. Do that with Cummings, and you’ll be immediately infused with the power of her testimony. If you’re driving when it happens, try to keep the car on the road.
The record starts with “The Look You Gave”. When I heard this song for the first time – having heard nothing else on the record – I knew I would fall hard for “Refuge Cove.” The power and majesty of Cummings’ vocals are a big part of it, but her ability to paint the devastation of a lover’s once warm glance turned cold - that shit hits hard all on its own.
Cummings poetry is clear, concise and rich with imagery. Sometimes it is an immediate thrill of discovery (“I need to swim in an ocean/as cold as the look you gave”) and other times it takes a bit of digging, like references to Paul Gachet. Turns out Gachet was Van Gogh’s physician assisting him during his struggles with madness. Cummings sees Gachet’s face in a spot on her ceiling. There’s a lot of layers to that onion, and they’re fun to discover.
On “The Other Side” Cummings muses about how to recover from a bad bout of musing. It is a song for all of us that have ever day-dreamed darkly, ever had visions of doubt and uncertainty, and a lesson in how to return. Midway through the song, Cummings encounters the assistance of ancient wisdom:
“Athena looks down and she
Begs you with reason
To hold your grief with you
In your hands for a while
There's no use for stillness
For the world keeps turning
It'll shake you and throw
Your feet off the wire
"To get you out of your slumber
Get you out and on the other side”
It's a stanza that pushes you off that tightrope dancing, and back to the crowd, but does it in a way that lets you know you’ll go back when you need to.
As for the music, the album is sparse with the arrangements, mostly just acoustic guitar strums and piano bits. Don’t expect a bunch of solos or post-production hijinks here. Cummings doesn’t need that stuff. She’s got everything she needs in her head and her lungs. It’s our job to open our hearts and bear witness as it bursts out of her.
Best tracks: all tracks
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