Burning In The Rain

If anyone can somehow unite the Anglo/Australian, Irish and Aboriginal clans, it will be the Howards.

Burning In The Rain, Marcia Howard's second solo CD, has an earthy sensibility which speaks from deep within the soft core of sensitive hearts. She with her brother Shane Howard, who's has recently released his superb Retrospect and Another Country CD's, have settled now in country Victoria, their land, linked with their Irish predecessors and with the indigenous everywhere. Marcia Howard has the feel about her of an Earth Mother, her brother the feel of a Folk Priest for Australians.

Burning In The Rain builds on Butterfly, Marcia's 2000 CD. Both are engrained with family, earth and the hearth. It has a settled, safe harbour feel about it. "I will be your shelter in a raging wind, you can always come to me."

Didn't We Burn, a tale of lost love, is both sad and soothing, sung in Marcia Howard's delightfully calming style. The accompaniment has an Irish, Southern Victorian feel, one that seems to growing out of the moss, the wild coast and the forests of Southern Victoria.

Irish songstress Mary Black is featured in Poison Tree, words by William Blake and recorded in Dublin. The Irish connection is strong throughout the album, with traditional tunes and feel permeating, but Burning In The Rain is an amalgam of styles which makes its own statement.

I Don't Mind exhibits a self sufficient, content happiness, overlaid on a traditional Irish tune. "Go on and leave me behind, never let me cross you mind, go on and leave me, I don't mind."

If our modern world is becoming overwhelming and you need to be soothed, Burning In The Rain is like going home to a favourite calm relative, sitting before the fire and finding your loving soul.

4 Flys

Steve Baker

Barfly Magazine Cairns