It's Elle Out There

ELLE OSBORNE
Testimony
9th House HCDO1

Elle Osborne

Don't worry, I'd never heard of her before either. In truth I can't tell you too much about her now beyond the fact that she's a young singer/fiddle player from the south of England performing primarily traditional songs and tunes who seems to spend an awful lot of time in Australia. She doesn't have a beautiful voice in the accepted sense, her fiddle playing is certainly less than classic and a quick scan of the track list doesn't inspire too much anticipation of originality... Still I Love Him, Lord Gregory, Go From My Window, Riddle Song, Withered And Died...

Yet this is one of the most compelling performances I've heard all year. Listen to the breathless urgency of her delivery on the opening track Katy Cruel and, well, you stay listened. Maybe it's because we have all become so conditioned to sophistication and technical excellence, but her earthy commitment to performance, uncompromisingly living the lyrics, give her a strength and character rarely heard in this day and age. She's so different in tone, phrasing, delivery and sense of timing I can't even offer up any names as reference points, though she does have a passion worthy of Frankie Armstrong and a dedication to storytelling that is perhaps more in common with the pub traditional singers of old than any revivalist. Similarly her fiddle playing has a coarse instinctiveness that is again indicative of a disappearing English tradition. Additional contributions from Helen Thomas on cello and David Thomas on fiddle (on Four Marys) scarcely smoothen the edges, recalling a spirit planets away from digital recording and perfectionist producers.

Thus her slightly shambolic unaccompanied interpretation adds appropriate angst to Richard Thompson's Withered And Died and the natural pain in her voice makes her performance of The Testimony Of Patience Kershaw even more devastating than Roy Bailey's version.

Not everyone will like this album. Indeed, a lot of people will hate it. Me, I can't get it off the player. Find her on her web site at www.elleo.com or email hello@elleo.com.

Colin Irwin

reproduced with kind permision of fRoots