Album Review: Dancing Under The Dogwoods

There has always been a simple charm to Tattletale Saints ever since they announced themselves with the release of their debut album How Red Is The Blood in 2013.

That album deservedly took out a Tui for best Folk Album at the New Zealand Music Awards the following year and while the duo of Cy Winstanley and Vanessa McGowan no longer call New Zealand home – they are based in Nashville, Tennessee – their OE has certainly broadened their musical horizons and palette.

Dancing Under The Dogwoods is their third album and it luxuriates with the kind of warmth and intimacy that delights the senses. Winstanley is a natural songwriter in the best of folk traditions, sometimes wearing a narrative hat at others simply weaving heartfelt stories of love and loss, highlighted on the relaxed and introspective Honest Work.

There’s a broader spectrum displayed on the Cajun-influenced Bobby Where Did You Learn To Dance – a true story about a blind man who learns to dance in a Texas bar – and the Arlo Guthrie-styled gentle hoedown of A Man Ain’t Working, while Here At Last is an elegant, poetic ode to persistence and sensing or seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

McGowan is the yin to Winstanley’s yang. Her harmonies are subtle, silky smooth, the frosted icing on the cake. She is also peerless on the upright bass, caressing, plucking and cajoling notes as if she was lost in some imaginary tango with Winstanley.

There’s a delightful surprise – a re-envisioning of Abba’s Dancing Queen. It’s more sobering and melancholic but just as alive and invigorating as the original.

Dancing Under The Dogwoods is an album wrought in the finest of songwriting traditions. You don’t need software programs to make music when you are hard-wired in the river of songs.  Me thinks, another Tui awaits Tattletale Saints.