There was a time when folk music was the voice of protest. Folk music hasn’t spoken loudly or harshly in a long time now so it was little surprise to find that Katie Spencer had instead infused her album “Weather Beaten” with a laidback and easy going feel that suggests misty meadows of the mind rather than streets of fire.
Ten songs are what you get and the ten songs share a stylistic familiarity that successfully merges her reticent voice, introverted lyrics and eminently fluid guitar style into the kind of music that encourages relaxation and reflective thought. Now, I am a three minute pop song kind of guy so this sort of music should have stalled me at the first red light yet, somewhere in the spell that Katie Spencer has cast, there are even entrancing references to greater goddesses like Emmylou Harris with, in particular, the oblique “The Best Thing About Leaving” encouraging your ears to find sonic parallels.
So, while “Weather Beaten” isn’t an album to immediately impress, it is nonetheless an album that suits the quieter moments of your life well which is, after all, the purpose of folk music these days.