Search - Diana Darby :: Naked Time

Diana Darby's debut is as good as I've ever heard.

mark | UK | 06/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Forget Gillian Welch / Lucinda Williams when it comes to poetry as song; this young woman out of Houston is tapping into the duende. A surface shimmer of punk/pop and brooding English folk laps at the feet of the ghost of Sandy Denny as she skirts the lake of the blues. The subject matter skims across abuse and sorrow with a voice that literally feels as if the sky is crying. The hands rowing the boat are experienced. Will Rigby of the DB's, Mark Spencer of the Blood Oranges, Mark Bosquist etc. The backings are as precise and evocative as copper etchings behind the fragile figure in a print dress. Like listening to trees fade and wither. The overall feel is mid seventies in a way and I kept thinking of Planet Waves. Standout tracks are the Appalachian ballad 'Malcolm's Song', 'Sarah' and the almost Blondie meets Patti Smith 'She won't be quiet no more' but really it's a near faultless first recording. Diana Darby is now resident in Nashville and is teaching poetry. Looks like the worlds of literature and song may be the richer for that. A black dog turned up on her doorstep and never left....'Blackdog' pays tribute in a mellow country form to both Nick Drake and Jesse Winchester's songs of that title but leaves us with the sound of pure Darby. Closer 'Amelia' is a Leonard Cohen tune made completely her own."