AMELIA CURRAN OPENS FOR ROYAL WOOD AT THE MOD CLUB (722 COLLEGE) DEC 5.
The fourth record by this Halifax singer/songwriter announces itself so immediately that you imagine the folks at the record label shoving a contract at her halfway through hearing the first song. Curran’s wonderful voice and simple acoustic strumming are front and centre on “Scattered and Small,” coloured with producer Phil Sedore’s harmony vocals and complementary instrumentation — here an accordion, elsewhere on the disc a mandolin, a clarinet. “Scattered” is a masterful, delicate little song about self-knowledge and self-doubt. If none of the other songs on War Brides (independently released in 2006, now rereleased by Six Shooter) are its peer, they are nonetheless very good, ranging from folk to wry country and rarely misfiring. This is an unexpected gem.