The Innocence Mission
We Walked in Song
Badman Recording Co.
The last time The Innocence Mission and I crossed paths was in the late ’90s with Birds of Our Neighborhood. While that record hewed pretty close to their earlier albums of alternative folk, the biggest revelation came with their immaculate cover of John Denver’s “Follow Me.” That song’s chiming guitar melodies and solid rhythm section set it apart from the rest of the album’s pleasant but forgettable tracks. Cut to nearly 10 years later, when We Walked in Song hits my doorstep completely fulfilling the promise of that cover. Over the 11 tracks here singer/songwriter Karen Peris captures the breezy fluidity of ’60s folk-pop timelessness. On “Love That Boy” she and her bandmates pull out all the orch-pop stops: light electric guitar and bass, piano and strings all backing Peris’ acoustic guitar strum. Surprisingly the group evokes early Velvet Underground with “Into Brooklyn, Early in the Morning” and its slow and sweet bass heavy pulse. As solid as any of the rediscovered gems of the original era like Vashti Bunyan and Karen Dalton, We Walked in Song will be a hard disc to beat for Sunday morning spins this autumn.
Badman Recording Co.: http://www.badmanrecordingco.com
