Narc. Magazine Online
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Lee Fisher discovers a special album of Appalachian folk traditions fused with contemporary touches
Thrill Jockey
Released: 22.08.23
Sally Anne Morgan – musician, artist, brewer (!), member of both House & Land and the magnificent Black Twig Pickers – is blessed with a gorgeous voice (not dissimilar to Josephine Foster or even the divine Dalton in its warm quiver) and an approach to Appalachian folk traditions with contemporary touches that places her in some Blue Ridged Venn Diagram between Anna & Elizabeth and New Weird America.
Carrying is a really special record, pretty without being bland, varied without losing its consistency. Morgan is backed by an all-star band here, giving some of the songs a gentle pulsing momentum, and everything sounds tremendously organic and woodsy. Opener and album highlight Beekeeper is impossibly lovely, Morgan’s banjo ringing clear like a mountain stream, but the album is full of gems.
