heart & soul
****1/2
The beautiful thing about folk music is that when it’s done right, it can cast a spell with the sparsest of ingredients…a fingerpicked guitar, a comforting voice or two, maybe a harmonica swell here and there, and you can pave a reliable road right into the listener’s soul.Such is the case here. Luke Marshall’s fingers are steady and his voice an unassuming presence, delivering a somber lullaby of a love song that is faultless and lovely.
There’s a brief guitar solo in the middle. Every now and then, another Luke Marshall adds a background harmony vocal.
Some of the words you may have heard before, like the first line, “You know that I’m no good,” but Marshall fleshes out the opening verse with sharper stuff, like, “I was born with this blood,” and, “Still I find comfort in this hell.” When the sound is this compelling, lines like, “I still get lost in your thoughts…Come on home,” easily clear the bar between cliché and universal.
Also printed in Bside Magazine 4 June 2015
