Album Review: Shelter by Olivia Chaney

There are only three musicians on British songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Olivia Chaney's second solo album, Shelter: producer Thomas Bartlett, violinist Jordan Hunt and Chaney herself (on guitar, piano, pump organ, Rhodes, dobro and harmonium). That's fewer than on her 2015 debut, The Longest River, and marks a shift back to her solo sound after Offa Rex's The Queen of Hearts in 2017, which saw Chaney interpreting British folk revival songs with the Decemberists as her backing band.   Chaney retreated to an 18th century family ….

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The sophomore long-player from the English folk singer and multi-instrumentalist, Shelter arrives just one year after the electrifying Queen of Hearts, Olivia Chaney's 2017 collaboration with the Decemberists under the Offa Rex moniker. The latter outing, an homage to late-'60s and early-'70s British-folk-rock, bristled with intent, skillfully evoking the eclecticism of bands like Pentangle, Fairport Convention, and Steeleye Span -- Chaney's performance alone was worth the price of admission. Like her 2015 debut, Longest River, Shelter is a more uncomplicated affair, with less attention paid to traditional folk songs (there are two, and both are delightful, as is a compelling rework of the Tex Ritter-penned "Long Time Gone") and a tighter focus on slow-burn originals that owe more to Blue-era Joni Mitchell and early Kate Bush than they do Maddy Prior and Jacqui McShee -- Sandy Denny remains both a sonic and lyrical linchpin.

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The challenge of making folk modern is one Chaney tackles head-on, both lyrically and musically. Highlight "Colin and Clem," about lovers from opposing backgrounds, specifically focuses on tradition in a secular world. The conclusion that Chaney comes to is that the two sides can coexist, religion giving structure and meaning to a rapidly shifting world: "Never been a puritan / Never liked their wine much / But I like the way her mother gives / Each guest a simple task/ For the future, for the past." For an album Chaney describes as "Simplicity versus sophistication...

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