Penny and Sparrow - Let a Lover Drown You

  by Lisa Torem

published: 27 / 4 / 2016

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Review

Penny and Sparrow AKA Andy Baxter and Kyle Jahnke are a folk duo from Austin, Texas. Their third album, ‘Let a Lover Drown You’ may, on the surface, be primarily about the highs and lows of love, the hard knocks and pitfalls of love, but the underlying theme also investigates a sense of hopefulness. Producers John Paul White (The Civil Wars) and Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes) worked together to help design a simple, but meaningful palette of unplugged, earnest harmonies and sincere story lines. If one has to draw comparisons, the obvious ones are Simon and Garfunkel and Iron and Wine (Sam Beam). The vocal tones are hushed and quietly evocative. The harmonies are angelic but convincing. The stories are universal and clearly articulated. You won’t ask, What do you mean by that? But you might ask, How’d you get through that and how are things now? Baxter has this thing about ‘Les Miserables’. The final song, ‘Eponine’ references Greek mythological, but also the character in that popular musical. If you review their first couple of albums, you’ll find related references: ‘Valjean’ and ‘Fantine’. And if you suss out the emotional thread, you’ll see that ‘Let a Lover Drown You’, like the famous musical, evokes a similarly tragic tone that musically, becomes downright appealing. ‘Catalog’ is another song that speaks to the heart and connects the disparate threads. But all in all, the Penny and Sparrow songs in ‘Let a Lover Drown You’ are capable of triggering many senses: loneliness, solitude, emptiness and empathy through a crystal clear lens. You won’t ask, what are they trying to say? You might ask, what can I do? Penny and Sparrow have a busy touring schedule in 2016 and will be supporting ‘Let a Lover Drown You’ at major festivals and popular venues.

Track Listing:-

1 Finery
2 Bed Down
3 Catalogue
4 Makeshift
5 Gold
6 Bourbon
7 Until Tomorrow
8 Bon Temps
9 Unfold
10 Each to Each
11 Eponine

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/pennyandsparr
http://www.pennyandsparrow.com/
https://twitter.com/pennyandsparrow
https://www.instagram.com/pennyandspar
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsgYI
https://plus.google.com/10988862789820

Label Links:-

http://www.singlelock.com/