Bandcamp [Release date 05.09.25]

The Black Country, England’s Midlands, home of Black Sabbath. And Susy Wall, but Susy Wall is not heavy metal, she is more delicate porcelain, with a voice like crystal glass, pure and refined, and dare I say it, Joni Mitchell-esque, particularly on ‘Home Child’, her cadence rising and falling as befits the narrative of the song. This particular song is about 5,000 Black Country children taken and displaced in Canada.

This album, containing eleven songs, is folk at it’s purist, songs about folk and places all familiar to the writer. Susy explains all the songs origins in the booklet accompanying this opus, and it’s a fascinating journey she takes

Susy takes inspiration from other Black Country artists such as poet, Liz Berry and photographer Tom Hicks, who have produced a book together of poems and photographs. Including places like Glasshouse Bridge, which guided the track of the same name.

Staying on the subject of glass there is ‘Trick Of The Light’, about local pioneers of glassmaking The Chance Brothers, whose glass is still featured in lighthouse all over the world. And going back to Home Child, one of the children was Liz Berry’s great Aunt, making the tracks all fit together like a big jigsaw puzzle.

The album finds a fine array of local musicians and poets to help Susy deliver this fascinating insight of Black Country life. Accompanying herself on guitar piano and dulcitone, she has Chris Pepper on percussion, lapsteel, mellotron and Indian harmonium, John Parker on double bass, Gustaf Ljunggren on bass, clarinet and flute, with Aaron Catlow adding some wonderful fiddle particularly on ‘Dereliction’, which is my favourite track on the album. She also has local poets Claire Tedstone and Martin Kennedy Yates adding some spoken word to a couple of the tracks.

Originally influenced by Laura Marling, Norah Jones and Simon And Garfunkel, Susy has created her own unique and at the same time traditional place in folk music, able to create a tale from a photograph or a piece of local history, but also able to get very personal on songs like ‘Cosy Warm And Lovely’, (a reference to her husband’s childhood), and ‘Leaving’.

Ozzy has left us, but Susy Walls isn’t leaving any time soon, her light is in the ascendant. A Black Light if you will. ****

Review by Andy Sharrocks

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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