City Of Refuge is the 2008 follow up to The Bootlegger's Daughter from Rachel Harrington.
Harrington is fast making an impact on the bluegrass and Appalachian circuit on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to her expressive and lonesome vocal style, backed up by some fine songwriting and careful, well-considered arrangements helped by the production qualities of Evan Brubaker, and mixing by David Ferguson (who also mixed Johnny Cash's American
Recordings III and IV)
Tim O'Brien contributes fiddle and backing vocals, while Holly O'Reilly and Pieta Brown also answer the call for perfect harmonies. Old Time Religion takes the instrumentation into an area rarely mined today, with the addition of understated jazzy clarinet taking listeners even further back in time.
Rachel Harrington's vocals are undoubtedley the main attraction, and her voice has already matured from her debut outing. Rachel's worldly gravitas brings a new dimension to the two traditional tunes on the album, and to an unexpected cover of Bobby Gentry's Ode To Billy Joe.
City Of Refuge farms personal and mythical stories from the American West, including tales inspired by the memoirs of prostitutes during the Alaska gold rush, the cantankerous Harry Truman of Mt. St. Helens, and short story writer Raymond Carver.
City Of Refuge is an album that possibly manages to surpass Rachel's excellent debut CD.
- Karen Kane
- A Housewife's Lament
- Old Time Religion / Working On A Building
- Truman
- Carver
- The Clearcut
- Angel Boy
- Ode To Billy Joe
- I Don't Want To Get Adjusted To This World
- Under The Big Top
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