Visions of Albion - Visions of Albion

by John Clarkson

published: 5 / 7 / 2021

Label: Klee Music
Format: CDS

intro

Diverse debut EP from promising Merseyside-based Americana/folk act Visions of Albion

Visions of Albion are the latest signing to the excellent Merseyside label Klee Music, which has a great aptitude for discovering and showcasing local acts. The group, an Americana/folk duo which formed in 2018 and consists of vocalist Samantha Shields and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Ryan, has drawn various comparisons with ‘Rumours’-era Fleetwood Mac. It is an apt description, as there is an element of Stevie Nicks in Shields’ floating vocals and Ryan’s surging guitar lines on ‘Daily Life’, the lead track on Visions of Albion’s eponymous debut EP. This, however, paints only part of the picture of what is a diverse and creative act. On opening track, the gently breezy and tentatively optimistic ‘You’re Not Alone’ Shields recalls the late Sandy Denny (“I feel your touch, and it is just enough to know that this is real”), and Ryan also reveals himself to be also a vocalist of some worth with his softly rasping additional vocals. The dryly witty ‘Old Time Blues’ (“You’re the best thing that never happened to me”) is built around very little, just Shields’ vocal line and Ryan’s plucked acoustic guitar line, but is gorgeous in its sparseness and simplicity. The closer ‘All That I Know’ captures bruised heartache and despair poignantly (“Woke up this morning to a deeper shade of grey”), and is based around a sombre organ and weeping strings, both of which surge upwards. An effective and versatile new offering from a promising new act,