Rita Hosking 'Burn' Self-Released

Americana music that combines elements of folk storytelling and country music instrumentation. For her fourth solo album Hosking continues from where her last acclaimed album left off. Using producer Rich Brotherton again with several members of Robert Earl Keane's band that includes Marty Muse on steel and Glen Fukunaga on bass alongside members of her own band ensures that the musical bedrock is top notch and these guys know how to support a song. Hosking also knows how to write a good song. She draws us into the lives of ordinary people and their, maybe, not-so-ordinary life and times. There are the fisherman and people who had to contend with the oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico (Ballad For The Gulf Of Mexico), the woman who throughout her live has had to deal with Dishes, as a metaphor for life (Dishes). Elsewhere there are miners, demolition derby drivers, departed lovers and Indian givers. Then there's Hosking's striking voice that has been mention alongside those of Gillian Welch and Emmylou Harris and without wishing to burden here with such comparisons it would be fair to say that it does fall somewhere between the two. Hosking also plays with a more bluegrass orientated trio Cousin Jack but here the sound is more amped with electric guitar bass and drums. While many of the songs are delivered with a more acoustic and sparse lilt the band can get a little more loud when required as on My Golden Bull, a song with some religious references to real love which builds from its voice and guitar intro to something more powerful and menacing, wherein the guitar and banjo intertwine. How Many Fires builds up that sense of tension again from a simple start to something more powerful and driven. Rita Hosking has an understanding of human nature which she conveys with her songs and voice. She burns with a controlled intensity that makes this well-packaged album something special.