REVIEWS Singing in Shropshire info@abbielathe.co.uk I've just started a new voice training venture with Anna Gillions and our first night was Sep 22nd. It was a wonderful evening with 20 budding singers from around shropshire. The usual response when I ask people how they are feeling at the beginning of the session is 'quite scared', and this, indeed, was the case. After a series of carefully prepared enjoyable excercises (physical and vocal), everyone felt so much better and were already wondering what there was to be afraid of. Then we immersed into simple harmony songs and, as always at these events, the sound was fantastic. People were amazed that they were part of something that sounded so good. There's a simple joy in combining voices (good and not so good, it really doesn't matter) that lifts the spirits immeasurably and takes away self-consciosness and fear of incompetence. There wasn't a person in the room who didn't feel uplifted by the experience; and many of them had believed they weren't good singers at the beginning of the evening. 'Sing from the heart' I say and all will be well. Abbie Lathe Low summer...netrhythms 2006 Currently still touring with Maddy Prior & The Girls, Abbie's nevertheless a major imaginative talent in her own right, as her previous solo album Spring (2003) demonstrated. Its followup, Low Summer, though two whole summers in coming, does however prove worth the wait; it's a further collection of intriguing original songs by Abbie herself (with the exception of Swallows, penned by Jon Fletcher), carrying the torch for poetic, strongly individual and highly aware contemporary songwriting. Once again Abbie's lyrics embody an acute understanding of observation and perception and how they impact on reality, all the while comprehending that it's a two-way process. Standout cuts this time round - notably the ostensibly more unusual, Pooka-esque (sorry, it's the only really relevant reference point I feel) ones like Broken and Therapy - display every bit as much imagination and originality as their counterparts on Spring. Elsewhere, Lucky reminded me of Laurie Anderson with its cool vocalising and eerie programmed beats, and the hip-jazz idiom proves apt for the philosophy of Secret Communication, while Let It Fall and the delicately pensive piano-backed Better Days have a dreamy Kate Bush ambience and Treachery is an inventively, lusciously scored piece loosely following the style of a traditional ballad (though considerably more economical in scope). There's still the very occasional, slightly frustrating, nagging sense that in Abbie's quest for economy of poetic expression an idea or situation is not quite fully developed, but generally the songs' brevity (or, putting it another way, their limited expansiveness) is but one of their strengths – another, of course, being Abbie's powerful use of simple imagery. As on Spring, Abbie herself plays the vast majority of the instruments heard on the recording ("yep, even the melodica!"), although she again calls on Jane Griffiths for some glorious string arrangements on three songs and her now-regular mini-team of Tony Poole (12-string), Colin Fletcher (bass) and Ady Milward (drums) appear here and there. I feel the CD probably tails off a bit towards the end, with Safe To Be and the final track (which is effectively just a brief slow air played - albeit beautifully - on low whistle) somewhat losing the sense of direction maintained throughout the foregoing tracks. On Low Summer as an overall entity there's not quite the sense of onward, forward artistic development from Spring that one might have then expected, but to be honest I'd far rather have another consistent disc that preserves the abnormally high standard Abbie had already set on those first two albums - so I've no complaints on that score. www.abbielathe.co.uk David Kidman Singing Workshop review by Andy Rushton "Sixteen souls (and a cat) to carnforth fared, to stand all day in a cold church hall. Abbie lathe soon took the chill off with a series of progressive workouts for the body, voice and muse. The struggle continued." (song ref) "Somehow, in steps so small that no-one would refuse, we grew from a silent anonymous assembly into a smooth singing machine. The struggle was over by midday, and four part harmony broke out across the whole hall. (there were attempts at five and six part harmony, some intentional, but that seemed a bridge too far). we lunched on stew and home made toffee-treacle-fudge-and-sugar cake, whilst the cat sat, meditating, on a railway track" (song ref) " (or perhaps I just imagined that). As a frosty morning gave way to a sunny (but still cold) afternoon, the focus shifted to each individual who wanted to perform a solo. Abbie provided expert and positive but perceptive criticism, managing to disembarrass us. I had to make up the word disembarrass. What I mean is, if Abbie told the King he had no clothes, he would smile serenely amd march majestically down with a new confidence in his own royalty. This is a talent well-suited to coaxing improvement from insecure singers. The finale was a concert-style rendition of the communal and solo songs (every one a winner). Then, after a few exchanges of phone numbers and venue recommendations, we melted away in the cold dark night. A choir that came from the void, shone briefly (not unlike the november sun) then was no more. And what happened to the cat? Well, strange to say, the cat went home with the singers, with each of them and with all of them. Which was odd, because as you know, as a rule, cats don't do that? Why not ask one of the Bothy folk who were there (www.bothyfolkclub.co.uk) Or better still take that small step yourself the next time Abbie's at large.   Next 3 reviews >> Show all reviews.