It’s a joy of music thing. I know that’s not really a thing of these times even if the world would be a better place if it was but hell hasn’t frozen over yet so, in the meantime, we should be glad to have Heather Pierson remind us of that very joy of music with her album “Back To The Light”.
The piano makes the pace on this album with a fluency of musical expression always clearly evident. Hints of jazz, Americana and the great American popular song season that sonic mix and it doesn’t take long to work out that uplifting is the only way to go for Heather Pierson. She sounds natural, unprocessed even, while her songs speak of positivity and are presented with kind of eloquence that makes you wonder why you might waste your time listening to anything else. “Joy Came Back,” for example, takes a walk down old time gospel street and you don’t even have to be spiritually inclined to pull a hallelujah from this song for Heather Pierson makes it work just like it would have done if the song had been created 70 years ago.
In some ways, this is an album of the old school where all that matters is the song. Heather Pierson’s voice exudes a love of music that is too often absent in these days of processed cheese music with the accompanying musicians doing their bit in reinforcing that refreshingly organic feel. “Back to Light” is therefore perhaps best summarised as wholesome and that’s no bad thing in my book.