Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Whilst it is quite right that the young have ambition and are granted every opportunity to fulfil their dreams, it should not be expected that those to whom 30 is but a distant dream be told to lay back and forget their own personal goals and silence the scream of desire and determination which comes from wanting to pursue their guiding aim in life. It make take time but everybody eventually should be able to say, should they wish too, they created something that will last beyond their time.

Linen is not just the feeling of comfortable in your stride, it is the memory of something cool, absorbing and the rich texture which makes it so much in demand, it is the thought that Carol Fieldhouse has ensured in her debut album. Linen is the means of achieving your goals, the fine mark of playing with Time and understanding that eventually your voice will be heard above the detractors and those to whom ambition and patience mean nothing.

Age though is no barrier to making sure that the voice is heard and with the production of Boo Hewerdine and the involvement of Neill MacCool, Evan Carson and Chris Pepper, Carol Fieldhouse allows the flow of Time to release what is a beautifully sounding album to come alive and be treated with respect.

The emergence at any period of a new voice in the Folk world is always one to be encouraged, to be let loose and walk tall, Linen makes that possible, the feeling of the comfortable is never far from the album’s objectives and as songs such as the album title track, Dark River, the subtly cool ballad that encompasses Billy Marshall, the tearing apart of the soul in Residue and the album opener A Little Piece of Land, Carol Fieldhouse opens more than just a piece of her heart to the inspection of a hundred thousand eyes, she offers her soul to the world; a world that at times takes great care to cause conflict and war between those who suggest that being over a certain age means that your voice is not valid. In the music that Ms. Fieldhouse has created that assumption is about as applicable as tearing apart a thousand years of history.

Linen is a wonderful debut, one which inspires and floats dreamily downstream.

Ian D. Hall