Victoria Williams – Musings of A Creek Dipper

Victoria Williams – Musings of A Creek Dipper
Atlantic – 1998
Folk, Pop, Singer-songwriter
Waardering: ***

For today’s addition to the Rancho De La Luna month we revisit one of those lesser-known recordings done there once again. Soon after Fred founded the Rancho a few big names entered the studio which brought friends along; who brought friends along, who brought. Well; you get the idea. One of those friends was Vic Chesnutt who entered the studio himself in 1996 and brought with him Victoria Williams. She then returned two years later to record her own album Musings of A Creek Dipper; featuring Fred Drake as tambourine magician and background singer. It also features the song Kashmir’s Corn; a song she wrote for Fred’s horse and lifelong compadre. During the sessions she also improvised a song about loving the Rancho with all her heart and never wanting to leave. Unfortunately that has not been caught on tape. Victoria Williams's dreamily melancholic folk-pop and her high-pitched, oddball voice has always made her sound like a Southern version of Joni Mitchell or Neil Young. On Musings of A Creek Dipper, a loose cycle of songs about illness, death and the hallucinations in-between, she finally justifies those lofty comparisons. It's as strange and anachronistic as all of Williams's albums. With one song that's unabashedly nostalgic for the days when trains crossed the countryside and another that suggests the daily newspaper as a modern evil, Musings registers as a vote to preserve the village green and its old ways of living and old ways of dying. The opener, "Periwinkle Sky," is a musing on the opposite attractions of the country and the city, and for most of the album, while staying somewhere in a rural zone, Williams balances soft, pillowy acoustic arrangements with urbane touches like trumpet solos and cello lines. They add just a hint of modern color to a timeless album whose characters seem to be biding their time awaiting, heavenly salvation while dealing with the drudgeries of daily life. Musings was her fourth studio album. The singer-songwriter strips her music down to the bare elements: It's all about the sun, rain, food, and hummingbirds. What's truly remarkable about these songs is how they manage to radiate a sense of wonder without sounding cloyingly precious. She remains on the lookout for everyday magic, and this album runneth over with appreciation for nature's simple gifts....She's unapologetic about her lazy pace and sappy disposition, spinning take-it-or-leave-it tales of cozy cabins and pretty clouds...

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