It’s not often that I can call an album well mannered but “The Garden” by Ruth Moody is just that. That is perhaps no surprise given that her day job is with The Wailin’ Jennys, of course, and fans of said musical splendour will find much to enjoy here.
The album itself is a delicate and sensitive thing with delicately handled excursions into matters of the heart paralleled with reflections on the way things used to be. That description may make it sound like standard Americana fare but that would be a simplification. Ms Moody’s voice is a thing of beauty throughoutwith all that underlying emotion neatly disguised by immaculate phrasing and control. You just can’t help but be moved by the way she can present a song. “Nest”, for example, is about as conventional as you get yet still lifts the spirit with very note.
On the surface, everything about this album is polite to the point of understatement. It is, however, the part beneath the surface that gets to you, as the evident sentiment and intelligence draws your mind in the same direction as your heart.