Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Everybody has luggage, some more than most; however it is what you do with it that can define you. The belongings that you carted round with you ten years ago is not the same as you carry round today. The bags may be heavier, that could contain less you imagine when you learn to shed some of the skin that surrounds it and occasionally, just occasionally you might misplace one and let the label fall of and flutter away like a winter bird returning to more northern climes. Regardless of how much luggage you carry, the Stories From a Suitcase will always be there to remind you how far you have travelled.
For Rita Payne, the dynamic duo of Rhiannon Scutt and Pete Sowerby, Stories From a Suitcase is one of the most individual, surprisingly for a duo, pieces of Neo Folk albums that you are likely to come across in a long time.
The balance between the feminine and masculine can sometimes be so unsteady, so unequal, that residue of one can seep across to the other and drown the required effect. It normally takes great skill to get the balance right as epitomised perhaps by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush on the song Don’t Give Up, or in the fantastic harmonies that ran between Lyndsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks throughout the 70s and 80s. For Rhiannon Scutt and Pete Sowerby, a pair that have only been performing together a couple of years, they already have the quality, the state of mind in which to show they are natural together.
Stories From a Suitcase is a natural progression, a set of songs that harnesses the power of equality and two voices of evenly balanced narrative ability, to the point where it might be impossible to shut the suitcase properly, overflowing with good songs and generous guitar, banjo and glockenspiel. The legends and tales told by Rita Payne all encompass the attributes of both musicians and in songs such as Forced To Run, Don’t Misuse Me, the excellent Jeremiah, the beautiful I Love You My Dear and Family Ramble, the message is very clear and deceptively loud, Rita Payne are an act to enjoy, to get into and find yourself whistling, however well or however badly, along to.
Rita Payne are a Neo Folk find, a celebration in a suitcase ready to take anywhere.
Ian D. Hall