Joan Shelley

Joan Shelley NO QUARTER. CD/DL/LP

Best album yet from Louisville singer-songwriter, rooted, but not stuck, in folk.

Timeless is an overused word in album reviews Ð as if there could be any reliable indicator that new music will retain its potency even five years hence. But Joan Shelley has a trick, at least, of making time disappear, her stately clear voice a rock at which the world flings itself in vain. Folk currents Ð the Fairports modalities of If The Storms Never Came; the Nick Drake drift of Wild Indifference Ð join with folk wisdom, in the doubtful shadows of I Got What I Wanted, and The Push And Pull, where she asks not to describe (and diminish) what happens between lovers: ÒDonÕt make me make up a story/DonÕt make me say what this isÉÓ Jeff Tweedy produces but does not intrude and Where IÕll Find You Ð the simplest, least adorned of the lot Ð is one of the songs of the year so far.