Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Inspiration is such a gift that invariably the best kept preserves that we squirrel away in our minds come from those we are often closest to, in spiritual deed, in family pastimes.
Danni Nicholls exemplifies the almost delicate way in which a family’s influence during play can stimulate a love for certain kind of groove in the young, the experience introduced at an influential stage will bind them to the beauty, to the desire of exploring, changing, altering in style that which catches their ear; and in her wonderfully composed album, Under The Neem Plum Tree, Ms. Nicholls sharply focuses on the artistic inheritance handed down from her Grandmother and the songs that made the family sing with joy.
With three notable exceptions, Ms. Nicholls’ own contemplated thoughts displayed in the tracks Ancient Orders, Between The River & The Railway, and the album title track, the album, produced and engineered by Sarah Peacock at the Sycamore Cabin Studio in Ashland, the recording delves deep into the history of the culture that was embraced by her Anglo-Indian Grandmother’s love of the old school Americana as covers and iconic tracks by artists such Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, and Pee Wee King & Redd Stewart.
The album is a beautiful appraisal of a time when the songs were loved for the simplicity, the pulse, the ease in which a family could sit around a piano and react in their own time to the meanings behind the imagery provided, or even just to sit, to engage as if being revealed to poetic structure for the first time; and as tracks such as the incredible Crazy, Blue Bayou, and Tennessee Waltz, played with grace and humility by Brett Resnick, Sarah Peacock, Shawn Byrne, Emerald Rae in support of the emotional vision of Danni Nicholls plays homage to, so Time is seen for its truth, not as a fleeting phenomenon, but instead a cultural gift that is open and creative.
An album that advocates paying attention to that which bound the family in unison and cheer, Under The Neem Plum Tree is a Muse all of its own accord.
Ian D. Hall