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Shona Laing: Pass the Whisper

It seems strange that Shona Laing would open this new record with a trio of songs from her earlier album ‘South’, but somehow it works as she remakes them to fit the folky direction she has taken here. Soviet Snow begins proceedings and although the strident outrage of the original is missing, its transformation into
a haunting Celtic lament for the environment with bhodran, pipes and acoustic guitar is somewhat of a masterstroke. Shoulda Been for You has a nice jazzy swing to it and Caught becomes a gentle finger-picked ballad, while further on Not a Kennedy morphs into a country-ish hoe down that kind of makes sense. In between we have Laing’s new songs which more than adequately match the standard set by these very familiar ones and offer up similar themes as she continues her personal and political explorations on the nature of life, while showing she has lost none of her conviction or her songwriter’s eye. Part of the appeal of this album also lies in the sympathetic backing provided by her Sparrow Band, especially James Wilkinson’s guitar, producer Nigel Master’s stand-up bass and the Celtic colours of Jimmy Young’s pipes. In some ways it could be said that with ‘Pass The Whisper’ Laing has come full circle back to the acoustic nature of her first recordings.

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