Katie Spencer is a prodigious talent, a gifted singer and songwriter with a much more than capable hand on her instrument of choice, the guitar. Indeed, her fluid facility on the same has had her compared to such fretboard champions as Michael Chapman and John Martyn. But it is the ease with which she weaves that wizardry into her very personal, reflective songs that then further amazes, songs that sit with the listener long after the hearing, songs that have her compared then with Joni Mitchell and Judee Sill.
What Love Is is album number three for Ms. Spencer, following on from 2019’s Weather Beaten and The Edge Of The Land, in 2022. There have also been EPs that show off her collaborative abilities, notably with Martyn alumni, Spencer Cozens and Alan Thomson, each of whom see elements of that mercurial singer in the tiny figure of the proud to be East Yorkshire woman.
In a live setting she plays mostly solo, all the better to hear any dropping pins (and jaws), but here, as in her other releases, she is with a band. Double bass is the given natural accompaniment, here provided by Tom Mason, with unobtrusive yet subtle percussion from Matt Ingram. Clarinet is a sound Spencer likes and a sound that sits well with her muse, and that comes from Giacomo Smith. An added treat is the occasional presence of pedal steel, a remembrance that her inspiration and mentor, Michael Chapman, often employed the instrument on his recordings. This is played by Max Clilverd, making those selections shine even the more.
It is the title track that comes first, and Spencer is not the first to rue on quite what love is. Billows of her own playing blend with the steel guitar, her voice a calm and gentle breeze blowing across the sure and steady rhythm. Clarinet slips smokily alongside the steel, each finding room enough to sparkle, whilst respecting the spaces so integral to the whole. It is the aural equivalent of shaking off all the loads and worries of the day, as you slip into a hot bath.
‘Come Back And Find Me’ is a little more urgent, a plea for the wholeness only love can provide: “I am drowning in heavy company and wine, come back and find me”. As her guitar plies a rotating pattern, the double bass and drums agitate about the expressed grief, giving that feel of being both spinning and motionless, each at the same time. ‘Forget Me Not’ then strips back to just voice and guitar, at least to start, a mournful melody where every note counts. As Mason and Ingram join, and Smith a little later, there is a middle eight that you could drown in, such the evocation of a day in her grandparent’s garden.
By now the sense that this is something very special is hitting, an assault that is gently eradicating any outside interference. This isn’t background music; it insists on full attention to detail and is possibly best enjoyed alone. Or maybe that’s just me, as I am simultaneously also imagining how well these songs will translate to the basements and clubs that Spencer often inhabits. Or the outdoor stages that seem to become such, as audiences, eye-closed, relish in the intimacy.
‘Home’ is a road song, as in written on the road. Like Paul Simon’s ‘Homeward Bound’, it becomes a celebration of being far from home, losing never the sight or need for grounding. Her voice is never more fragile than here, yet still manages a shatterproof intense stillness. The guitar provides the restlessness that longing for home imparts.
The following ‘Back To Brightness Above’ was written for her guitar, an instrument, custom made for her, by celebrated luthier Tom Sands. As such, words are superfluous, with the ringing tones providing all the necessary tribute. A beautiful piece, her picking resonates with the oak and cypress, gusts of pedal steel acting to further draw out the focus.
The same mood as in ‘Home’ inhabits ‘Stranger’, a song that reeks of playing songs for strangers, far from home. The steel sings in counterpoint to her words, which are maybe around finding a friend in such a setting. Or perhaps wishing for the presence of the one far away. Which is a good lead into the album’s big song, ‘It Was Then That I Knew Love’, a song of deep gratitude. This is a moving paean to her adoptive parents, and the warmth and honesty of the lyric is astounding: “When I was held to the chest, it was not my mother’s breast, but it was then that I knew love, and it existed beyond blood.” The cypress and wood again sing, this time as a bed for her heartfelt vocal delivery, with bubbles of clarinet to add extra pathos. A truly remarkable song.
‘Cold Stone’ has her exploring more fully the capabilities of her bespoke guitar and how amplification and effects can enhance even that. I recall being astonished by her playing of this live, last year, open mouthed in awe. Echo and reverb take the sonic into wow territory, and, here, now with a studio version, that mouth is again wide open. From that earlier hot bath, now it is a cold shower that is needed.
Spencer says that you need light to move through the dark, which is an apt metaphor for how she approaches accepting change, however initially unwelcome. ‘Goodbye’ is thus tinged with as much hope as it is by sadness, lessons learnt for the future. The song is performed solo and benefits from that decision, with the titular chorus imprinting. And, if ‘Goodbye’ suggests putting the past behind you, closer, ‘Carry It All’ is the flow forward after the ebb of farewell. Almost a tone poem of thoughts around the thin line between inconstancy and consequence, it makes for a wistful close, asking more than it answers. The clarinet, bass and drums float about her and it is utterly gorgeous, bringing in familiars from Van Morrison at his most transcendental.
Oof, this record is really something, a stunning presentation of widescreen intimacy that never forgets what volume there is in quietness, and how crowded solitude can be.
Seuras Og
Artist’s website: www.katiespencer.net
‘It Was Then That I Knew Love’ – live acoustic:
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