- Audio CD (14 April 2008)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Kensal Town Records
- ASIN: B001608BDG
- Other Editions: Audio CD | MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 118,560 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Description
Review
Dawn Kinnard grew up in Pennsylvania, though from the sound of this singer-songwriter's first album you'd think that she's spent her entire life nestled on the steps of the bars and churches of the South, which, suitably, is where she was first discovered- in a tiny bar in Nashville, Tennessee.
This album positively drips with Southern Gothic sleeplessness and anxiety with Kinnard's voice a constant lipstick-smeared, whiskey-glass-rolling-across-an-overworn-bar presence.
Kinnard's tone is oft compared to KT Tunstall but in reality is more like a weatherbeaten relative of Nina Persson of The Cardigans. Bolshy, angular guitar riffs swirl and uncoil around the crepuscular uptightness of the lyrics of Devil's Flame where Kinnard does battle with the kind of agnostic brow-beating that the Arcade Fire have been so far calling their own: ''You can't curl up you can't crawl away. You can't tell God you have a mental illness and you're exempt for the day''.
The highlight is the bluesy, string-drenched sweetness of Fortune Teller, a stunning evocation of confessed regret and caprice with Kinnard's voice rolling like a gentle tide through the dusty halls of a long closed seaside cabaret hall.
Collaborators include Cerys Matthews and Ed Harcourt, who duets as the doleful critic, counterpointing Kinnard's innocent declarations of desire on album centerpiece Clear The Way. Matthews, a fellow converted denizen of the Deep South co-writes the stop-start snarl of One Little Step Away.
This is a hugely mature offering, steeped in the twilight world of leaf strewn verandas and slow footsteps, with Kinnard's voice and lyrics a hugely charismatic mixture of deflated thrills and whispered promises of the future. --Rob Crossan
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A breath of fresh air coming from your stereo,
By aizomc27 (Belfast, N.Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Courtesy Fall (Audio CD)
Based on her performance on Later...with Jools Holland, I went out and bought the album. I was not disappointed in the least. As well as the heart-wrenching ballad/duet with Ed Harcourt, "Clear the Way", the album also offers us a real rollercoaster of passionate emotions which have been very cleverly brought together. Definitely worth every penny, I can't wait for more from this true gem of the soon-to-be mainstream musical world.
7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The magic that is Dawn Kinnard,
By mikesmart06 "MRG" (Norfolk UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Courtesy Fall (Audio CD)
This unique and elusively intriguing singer's tongue lovingly encircles words like the tail of a pet cat curling round its favourite chair leg. If this accent sounds familiar think the late James Stewart, actor, who also hailed from Pennsylvania. As I have noted elsewhere her voice may be likened to a gemstone scribing a rare and fragile sound on the smoked and mirrored glass of the awestruck air in my ear - if this alchemical feat were possible. She delivers her very personal and one assumes autobiographical material with genuine passion at times with the raw intensity of a woman scorned and then changing to the plaintive voice of a little girl lost and there is alchemy aplenty here. A great diva singing the works of a great composer has the power to wring out our hearts but Dawn Kinnard can do this with words she has written and music she has composed herself. This is a magic talent just revealing itself and below the surface still swirling with perhaps too many of the painful vicissitudes of life there is the promise of a rich harvest. All is not angst here either, as the optimism of `The Devil's Flame', `Pennsylvania' and `Fortune Teller' is more than enough to leaven the mix. Try drifting with `Fortune Teller' along the seafront at Blackpool, Southend or any seaside town and let the ballroom Wurlitzer swirl you away on a tide of dreams with an ice cream or a plate of cockles in your hand and in your pocket a stick of rock wrapped in cellophane with Dawn Kinnard written all the way through it, to be taken home and kept and cherished and never eaten.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
wow,
By Fetska (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Courtesy Fall (Audio CD)
I'm a big fan of this album - I've been listening to it loads since I bought it last year. Check out her track 'Love is my new drug', on the Bruce Parry Amazon album. More of the same and absolutely brilliant.
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