Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The events and songs of a past generation still play with our minds because of the searing ripples they made on the water of life at the time, and if you have to live through the age of interesting times, then to take solace in the moments between each ripple is not only a must, it is the only positive thing you can do that does not involve revolution.
Saskia Griffiths-Moore delights in the movement of those ripples, and with enchanting musicianship from Kit Hawes, Joseph O’Keefe, Thomas Holder and Ali Petrie, the movement is one that captures an era that has always held steadfast to its beliefs and to its ability to seek out a series of truths, acceptance, embracement and restoring credibility to a world that given half a chance would set itself on fire.
It is perhaps fitting that in the year that sees the 50th anniversary of the gathering of music fans and ideals that put Woodstock on the map, that a vocalist with such depth of character as Ms. Griffiths-Moore takes on the epitome of the 60s musical revolution with songs from the catalogue of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and surprisingly a track from The Beatles.
In Baez, Dylan & Me, Saskia Griffiths-Moore takes the ripples of the past and pushes them further, adding a distinct tone of the contemporary to the style laid out when the first stones were skimmed across the waters of time. In songs such as Blowing In The Wind, Knocking On Heavens Door, Farewell Angelina, Forever Young, There But For Fortune, The Times They Are A Changing and in The Beatles cover of Let It Be, the temptation of the moment is hard to resist, the ripples, siren like, call out to be ridden like white horses of foam, and taken onwards to the farthest shore where they, like time and tide, wait for no one, except the believers.
With a voice that soothes the fires of the heart, Saskia Griffiths-Moore has shown quite superbly that the ripples of time can never be ignored, that they have meaning in a world that finds itself devoid of genuine pleasure, Baez, Dylan & Me is always the swell to which we can focus on.
Saskia Griffiths-Moore releases Baez, Dylan & Me on September 5th.
Ian D. Hall