From a commercial perspective, a musician can’t really go wrong walking down the well-trodden folk music trail in search of the nirvana that is Americana. The rules are rigid and there are plenty of roots tuned ears out there waiting to listen to tales of times when today’s ghosts were almost real. Nancy K Dillon duly puts her best foot forward with her album “A Game of Swans” and sets off on her musical journey into the past.
Her songs are, as you would expect, inspired and rooted in the past. Her low key voice, likewise, reaches back to all those sixties female folk singers that, way back then, managed to reach out and touch the hearts of the many through a simple and direct approach and her choice of musicians emphasises the pleasing traditionalism that is clearly close to her heart with a restrained eloquence being brought to each and every song.
However, in amongst the downbeat lyrics, there are a few moments when the fractured reality of rose tinted sentimentality is overcome by some real soul with “Annabelle” being the prime example of how to turn the ethereal into song. Otherwise, roots fans and their festival bookers will find much to please their ears in this album.