ALBUM REVIEW: Nature Is the Source of Solace and Songs on Laurie Lewis’ ‘TREES’
On her new album, TREES, Laurie Lewis invites listeners to join her on a ramble through the natural world as she experiences both loss and joy. This project is her first without the mandolin accompaniment of long-time collaborator and partner Tom Rozum, due to his challenges from Parkinson’s disease. Rozum’s artwork, however, is featured on the album cover, and he provides harmony vocals on three of the cuts, including the haunting title song. Rather than replacing his instrumental accompaniment, present on her albums since the two began working together in 1986, Lewis intentionally left off mandolin on all but the upbeat opening song, “Just a Little Way Down the Road,” which features Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse.
That first track serves as a personal anthem, a recognition of the healing effect of hitting the trail to combat the blues. In her lyrics, Lewis incorporates a line from John Muir: “The mountains are calling, and I must go,” a mantra with significance for lovers of the outdoors far beyond its ubiquity on bumper stickers and sweatshirts. “Enough,” another original by Lewis, opens with low-tuned banjo and incorporates accordion as it addresses the wildfires on the Pacific Coast, offering the poignant refrain, “I’ve had enough fire, I’ve had enough rain / Lord, I’m so tired of all this pain.”
The songs of TREES exhibit a perfect marriage of lyrics and instrumentation, particularly evident on “Quaking Aspens,” with double fiddles mimicking the movement of the trees and echoing the verses in a kind of call and response. The four-part a cappella harmony of “Trees,” which follows this track, stands out in stark contrast, sounding like a secular old-time hymn. Lewis wrote the song from the perspective of the trees “waiting at the edge of your fields” until the time when they “will reclaim what’s ours when you have gone.”
On the album, Lewis incorporates a range of musical styles — bluegrass, old-time, folk, and more. Among her originals, she also includes Tom T. Hall’s “Hound Dog Blues” and John Hartford’s “Down on the Levee,” which conjures up images of a muddy river with “a real steam boat with double-swinging stages / compound condensing engines, and real old-timey looking gauges.” Lewis penned the lyrics of “The Banks Are Covered in Blue” to accompany a waltz tune by Brandon Godman, who plays fiddle on many of the album’s tracks.
Lewis’s lyrical ear is evident, whether catching songs from other songwriters or collecting lines for songs of her own. Music lovers, particularly John Prine fans, will find “Why’d You Have to Break My Heart So Early in the Day?” particularly poignant, inspired by a comment from the late singer-songwriter as Lewis exited the stage after a morning set at the Strawberry Music Festival. The line eventually found its way into a song after she heard the news of Prine’s death on a morning years later.
Lewis ends the album with the comforting reassurance of the final track, “Rock the Pain Away”:
When the loss is more than you can stand,
Reach out to me and I will take your hand.
When the sorrow turns your heart to stone,
I’ll stand by you; you need not be alone.
Rather than an escape into nature, TREES is a collection of songs artfully arranged to accompany an introspective journey.
Laurie Lewis’ TREES is out May 31 on Spruce and Maple Music.