Rachel Harrington
Halloween Leaves
Marado
Rachel Harrington is an alt-country singer raised on gospel music in rural Oregon. This four track EP finds her covering Gillian Welch (“My Morphine”), Gram Parsons (“Hickory Wind”) and Otis Redding (“That’s How Strong My Love Is”). The title track is the lone original and sets a nice mood.
This is a self-produced, bare bones effort with Harrington’s acoustic guitar accompanying her pretty, airy voice. That voice isn’t particularly rooted or unique, but the multi-tracked harmonies on the Welch tune in particular have a nice Emmylou-like quality. Buddy Miller’s version of the Otis Redding tune is the standard by which others should be judged, and Harrington’s version isn’t in that league. But she does give it a decent amount of soul and emotion.
Halloween Leaves is ultimately a promising but slight debut. Harrington’s vocals and arrangements aren’t really compelling enough to add a personal stamp to these familiar songs. Hopefully she’ll find her own voice and a few more of her own songs for future releases.
Rachel Harrington: http://www.rachelharrington.net/
