Samantha Farrell - September Sun

Samantha Farrell brings to mind the voices of Anais Mitchell and Nora Jones. She has exceptional powers of creativity. The subject matter, lyrics, musical accompaniment and production is a joy to listen to – I am pulled into each song by the maturity and the atypical writing. You can hear the smile or sorrow in her voice, and the other musicians play with mastery. “Lover's Prayer” is beautiful — actually it reminds me of something Nina Simone would have sung, and would have probably wished she had written. It starts with a smoky sax and has lines like: “I quit drinkin because there's always a reason .... I don't want to dream cause that always brings me to you... The birds are singing songs of departure... ” This is a sad song. Her voice trails off into an undulating note that becomes the sax.

In the song “You Are Gonna Break My Heart” she nails the longing feeling that Sufjan Stevens' songs often have. “Circles” has snapping fingers, a bass, a piano and a catchy, jazz vocal. I love the jazzy flow of “Song For Somnus” as well.

“Long Night Coming” has the line “There's no such thing as rock bottom/ the darkness knows no depth.” “For Beauty's Sake” has the line, “beauty for beauty's sake” which is so simple, but true. “Some Crazy Dream” is a wistful tune played on guitar and violin. She says “Sometimes it's better not to know what you're getting into/ oh it is the burden and the joy of golden youth/ run until the sun goes down/ looking for some truth./ But if you knew how hard it would be/ would you ever choose?”

I feel privileged to have listened to this excellent piece of art. It is substantive songwriting with sublime execution, full of feeling.