Silver and Ash

iTunes Review

Silver and Ash reflects singer/songwriter Clare Burson’s research into her grandmother’s escape to America from Nazi Germany in 1938. Images of transatlantic journeys and lost loved ones flit across these songs like torn pages from a photo album. The sparse yet intensely visual lyrics to “The Only Way,” “Goodbye My Love” and “In the Sea” are given emotional weight by Burson’s aching vocals and her genteel folk-based melodies. Certain songs — most notably “Baby Boy” — have a nostalgic country feel reminiscent of Lucinda Williams. But really, Silver and Ash is as much rooted in European idioms as the sounds of Burson’s native Tennessee. “The World Turns On a Dime,” for instance, has the raucous swing of a klezmer band, while “Magpies” suggests the resolute bleakness of Russian poetry. Most revelatory is “I Will/With You,” a poignant vignette set to a buoyant pop/rock track. Tucker Martine’s production brings out the melancholy beauty of these tunes, aided by abrasive guitar touches by Son Volt’s Mark Spencer.