Basia Bulat - Heart of My Own

Author

Andrew Snelling

Published

Wednesday 3rd March

They say ‘never judge a book by its cover’…

But, if I’m honest, and I’m sure I owe it to a record as honest and earnest as this one, I had never heard of Canadian, Basia Bulat, and that’s exactly what I did. Looking at the cover of Heart Of My Own with its grainy photo of Basia standing on a quaint country road I thought, ‘looks kind of like it might be a Björk/Sigur Rós kind of feel’. What I got, however, was a very diverse, passionate folk album that with the strong vocals of Basia, reaches into the realms of country.

Heart Of My Own is a bit of a rollercoaster ride, driving a long to strong beats and rhythmic banjo and guitar in first track Go On, the record takes a subtle step back with follow up track Run, and an even further step back with next track Sugar and Spice before picking right back up again with Gold Rush, and so it goes on. In fact, the multi-instrumental Bulat who commands the autoharp, guitar, piano, organ, pianoette, banjo, ukulele and bass on this album manages to evoke the feeling I’m at a particularly raucous and temperamental gypsy party.

Further to that, this record was almost entirely written on the road, touring through Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA many times round. It is perhaps this that gives the record such a broad and adventurous sound that really complements the clever and evocative words which seem to come from a well-traveled heart.

Bulat proves herself a more than capable solo artist, with a strong direction and a proper command of what she wants to say, and how she wants to say it. If Folk is your thing, give her a listen.