Eve Williams
Album: Twenty Miles From Home
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.evewilliamsmusic.com

Northern Irish singer-songwriter, Eve Williams has a performance dynamic that seems to reflect her four octave range voice, playing gigs entirely on her own and appearing with a full blown orchestra. Having recently completed her master's degree in songwriting, "Twenty Miles From Home", her most recent album, sees her developing those abilities.

Whoever recommended that Eve Williams should kick off "Twenty Miles From Home" with "Broken Dolls" should be shot, actually having heard the song reprised at the end of the album, perhaps hang, drawing and quartering would be a better punishment. As they say you only get one opportunity to make a first impression and well, let's put it this way, if I'd have heard it on the radio I'd be looking for another channel.

As it was I endured the two and a half minutes and I'm glad I did as there's a good album lying behind it and that's good with no qualification, good, not good by comparison with the first track. Eve Williams is a singer that brings both poetry and a sense of drama to her music, she has a powerful voice, one that she uses to project the words well.

Similarly a lot of thought has gone into the arrangements, simple chords, normally via piano, to give a sparse sound space in which you feel almost anything is possible, combined with smaller sections that bring in a subtle, almost understated use of strings and backing singers to bring out all the inflections.

"Twenty Miles From Home" brings elements of classical music into a song format. It's an album that is highly dramatic, it does bring images of grand pianos in the sea and the middle of forests, the lyrics have a sense of mystery about them, but oh that first song, it's what the next track button was made for.

Neil King