Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
To travel alone is one of life’s great enlighteners. It may be pleasurable to be surrounded by a crowd of like-minded souls, or even long-established friends, when undertaking any adventure, but arguably the greater sense of freedom, of being caught in the moment of personal revelation and revolution, is to have your mind and eyes prised open to what you can achieve when left to your own will and determination.
To rely on no-one, even if you wished to be in the arms of another is a freedom that has perhaps been discounted and neglected until the start of 2020, and in the pursuit of continued creativity, the solitary existence has taken precedence, and in the One Woman Band do we place our trust, and see the contract of entertainment fulfilled.
We underestimate the individual at our collected peril, we may shun them, ignore them, find ways to make their life a living hell, but the determined, the resolute, will always find a way to keep the haters seething, and the lovers enamoured right down to their core.
For Ghalia Volt, the recognition of the situation that 2020 put the world through resonated deeply, and if we think we are alone in dealing with the position of uncertainty then for the collaborative artist who has made her albums sing with power and pleasure thanks to being around others, then in her new album, One Woman Band, the adopted daughter of the American Blues scene rectifies and breathes life into the surrounding absence and delivers a set of songs that are honest, crucial and resplendent in their transformative spirit.
Tracks such as the sensational Evil Thoughts, Meet Me In My Dreams, the unquenchable fire of It Ain’t Bad, Bad Apple and Espìritu Papàgo, Ghalia Volt opens up and dictates that her emotions are free to run riot, to have time in the sun and be blessed for being true, for being real.
An outstanding album, One Woman Band is the lift we need to embrace our own fragility and strength in equal measure.
Ghalia Volt releases One Woman Band via Ruf Records on January 29th.
Ian D. Hall