Bright Morning Stars is the fourth album to come from this incredibly talented trio, the Wailin’ Jennys were formed after a chance meeting for a one-off in store performance at a guitar shop in Winnipeg, Manitoba, back 2004 they released their first full-length album 40 Days which won them a Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year, the follow up Firecracker was equally well received spending over a year on the Billboard bluegrass charts, with the departure of Annabelle Chvostek New York based Heather Masse joined the group to record Bright Morning Stars under the close eye of producer Mark Howard (credits include Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams) who has done a wonderful job in capturing the vocals subtleties of the trio and allowing the voices to shine individually and of course in perfect harmony.
The album features four original songs from each member Ruth Moody (vocals, guitar, accordion, banjo) Nicky Mehta (vocals, guitar,ukulele) and Heather Masse (vocals, upright bass) and a stellar a capella version of the traditional Appalachian hymn and title track Bright Morning Stars, you know your ears are in for a treat from the start with the beautiful harmonies on Swing Low Aim High the opening number and the quality doesn’t drop of one iota as the songs of love, loss and yearning are delivered in a variety of styles, the trio adopt gospel mode for Storm Comin’ , a more traditional folk on Across the Sea and a little jazz for Cherry Blossom Love, as good as the voices and production are you’ve got to have the songs too and the trio are all equally gifted on that front penning some memorable numbers, Nicky’s four edge out Ruth and Heather’s for me and I’ve picked my favourite to share.
The Wailin’ Jennys – Swing Low Sail High
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