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The keynote of Jennifer Noxon's Watch as you Walk is something rare in a first album: it has poise, both lyrical and musical. Her songs are vivid narratives, but elliptical in a way that rewards repeated listening. Likewise, the arrangements are varied and uncluttered, with interesting layers of mandolin, acoustic bass and a range of other instruments including tablas, cittern, violin, and slide guitar. These tunes will stay in your head... and you'll be glad they did.
One standout is "Bottomless Cup", set in a coffee shop where young and old embrace life's adventure: "No plan is the best plan of all...I'm taking my time to answer the call /With no plans at all". It's typical of Noxon's empathetic writing, in drawing out a common human thread from the dreams and fears of different characters.
Against a sunny calypso rhythm, the women in "Water" wait patiently ("I'm only 148th in line") to carry their filled buckets home. Where it would be easy and obvious to moralize, this song celebrates instead the hope and unembittered determination of the women providing for their families.
Elsewhere, the yearnings are sometimes ironic or eccentric. In a playful moment, "Under my Skin" is a jazz-tinged, swingy medical consultation (diagnosis: you're in love) and "Suspended in the Blue", a quirky bit of intra-species envy: "Give me gills to help me breathe and a fancy set of fins/All I've got are these arms and legs and a long, long way to swim".
The mood turns sombre with a slow-motion portrait of arson: "Someone took a match/lit it and/with a hand, threw it/Hot flames burned, burned our church down"("Devil's Breath"). Overcoming this darkness calls on the same courage that confronts and tames fears of menaces both real and imagined in "Gotcha", and survives the aching sorrow of "Wind's Secret", to find "warmth like sun on a hot day in July".
And there's the music. Guitar and voice are the starting point; then James Stephens' arrangements, with exquisite musical good sense, pick and choose from the playing of 11 musicians (himself included) and leave enough breathing space to keep the vocals at the fore.
Watch as You Walk is a rootsy, eclectic disc, with words and grooves that create something rare: a sense of sounding both familiar and fresh every time you listen.
Those interested in learning more about Jennifer Noxon and her music may wish to visit her web site.
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Canadian.
