Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We all undertake a journey, but quite often we are so wrapped up in mapping out our own possible routes that we forget others are placing their own faith in the stars to guide them, we don’t see the hazards they encounter along the way, we have no empathy for the struggle, and in the end we judge them on the Postcards & Pocketbooks they send us when they reach their destination. Such is the reflection of the human mind that we believe their route was plain sailing, whilst ours had to navigate every iceberg and shark infested waters possible.

Postcards & Pocketbooks may only tell of half the story, but they are an indication of what can happen when you value the story of others, the ability to see beyond your own path, and how it might even take you in a different direction.

For one of the finest Folk singers of the last decade, the rigid resolve to encompass the last decade with songs that have come to mean so much to many, the greetings from tracks to immerse the listener in the retrospective that takes then from point A to Z via every emotion and moment of fortitude, in such a sense of expression, Bella Hardy’s own postcard is more in tune with a series of letters that are sealed with passion and grit, and are the truth behind the sentiment of courage and conviction.

Across two C.D.s, boundaries are explored, tested and then broken through, new ground discovered, and those postcards and pocketbooks are filled with meaningful delivery, the mind active, but the soul embracing. In songs and memories such as Learning To Let Go, Whisky You’re The Devil, The Darkening Of The Day, The Seventh Girl, The Only Thing To Do, Queen Of Carter’s Bar, Good Man’s Wife and the exquisiteness of two new recordings in Sheep Crook & Black Dog and Tequila Moon, those boundaries become dust in the sand and the road becomes a permanent feature, the signpost declaring the way ahead, and it is one that gratifies.

For Bella Hardy, Postcards & Pocketbooks is a clear indication that the letters home have been received, and the telegram to her soul has been acknowledged, she must continue onwards, the stamped address she offers is an ever-changing, ever considerate, categorical belief.

Ian D. Hall