DAWN LANDES

Meet Me At The River

Ageless country classicism from Nashville-based songwriter

At face value, Dawn Landes might not be an obvious candidate for a pure country album. Her four previous efforts mostly drew from folk, roots and alt.pop for inspiration – hitting an early peak with 2008’s vivacious Fireproof – while her list of collaborators includes Sufjan Stevens, Norah Jones and the New York City Ballet. Of late she’s been busy working on a musical about American rower Tori Murden McClure and dispensing Christmas songs as part of all-girl trio, The Bandana Splits.

Yet the outstanding Meet Me At The River seems like a natural turn for a coal miner’s daughter raised in Kentucky and reared on the music of Loretta Lynn. The catalyst was her recent move from Brooklyn to Nashville, where she decided to scratch that country itch by coaxing the great Fred Foster – veteran producer of Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, as well as co-author of Kris Kristofferson’s “Me And Bobby McGee” – out of retirement. Foster immediately set about introducing Landes to his trusted team of illustrious session players, among them harmonica player Charlie McCoy and Elvis’s old pianist, Bobby Wood; all of whom help bring a timeless countrypolitan feel to Meet Me At The River, heightened by the addition of a croaky-toned Bobby Bare (now in his eighties) for the first-rate duet “I Don’t Dance”.

Aside from the supple elegance of Landes’ warm voice, the most arresting element is her sharp songwriting, which succeeds on a number of levels. She addresses her impulse to roam on the reassuringly twangy “Traveling”, before turning it into a metaphor for protest on “Keep On Moving”, in which she salutes activists like the late Peace Pilgrim and underlines the need to keep striving for justice and freedom in worryingly divisive times. A similar plea for inclusivity is at the heart of “My Church” (one of two pointedly political Jimmy Driftwood covers here), offset by more playful, genre-centric gems like the boot-tapping “Southern Girl” and “Why They Name Whiskey After Men”.