Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The image of the cherub performing a dynamic harp solo to the masses is not one that readily springs to mind, it is an image best preserved for the music room in the back passages of the Vatican, the one where you might hope the Pontiff and his staff take on the world’s finest musicians and sing glory to their name.

The harp might not be the first instrument that comes to mind when thinking of an evening by the fire, an hour to while-away the time in the presence of a musician to whom ability and prowess go hand in hand. However, in Heather Downie, the magical way in which she connects with her chosen means of communication and the medium of delight in which she performs, is enough to ask of the cherub as it sits down in the corner and starts to strum and clearing its throat, if by any chance it can hope to replicate the heavenly sound of Nae Sweets For Shy Bairns.

With sincere and accomplished addition from Tia Files on percussion and guitar, and the guest vocal of Producer Corrina Hewat on the track Stronger Than You Know, Heather Downie’s debut in the studio has resulted in an album that is blissful to the memory but also one that is unafraid to be in love, of playing an instrument that might not be considered popular to the massed crowds, but one which carries a sense of the absolute waiting for us all. A guitar after all may herald the angels to your side and cause the Devil to reminisce with a smile as He stokes the fires, but a harp, in the right hands, call down upon the eternal and makes it sing.

In songs such as the opening track For The Love Of Levers, Niel Gow’s Lament For The Death Of His Second Wife, the aforementioned Stronger Than You Know and Messed Up Marches, Heather Downie adds gravitas to a method that is already held in high esteem. This is no mean feat, no sense of illusion between fingers and strings, just a simple, radiating beauty that captures the essence of the cherub at play and the introspective of a heart that joins it.

Nae Sweets For Shy Bairns is a wonderfully adept and soul stirring album, one of great persuasion and harmony.

Ian D. Hall