Alela Diane Issue #39

To Be Still

By Erin Wolf
Published: March 1st, 2009 | 2:09pm

Alela Diane’s second release is all about capturing the harmonies her previously penned songs missed with their stripped-down, campfire arrangements. The tracks on To Be Still — luxuriously recorded with mandolins, pedal steel, and violin — possess a fullness that complements Diane’s stand-by acoustic guitar pluckings, enhancing her muscular folk-gospel vocals.

Hailing from Nevada City, California seems to have worked its magic into Diane’s veins: songs of family and home are filled with wistful elements of wanderlust, lest her music sounds too nostalgic. In the title track, she sings of the relationship between the wanderer and the one who waits at home. “Have you been wearing holes / In your boots out there? / Have you been kicking bones / In the desert sand?”

Although naturally contemplative, To Be Still’s added instrumentation allows for an accessible sort of intimacy; rather than singing to herself as a lonely balladeer, eyes on the fret board of her guitar (as on her prior, The Pirate’s Gospel), the percussion, banjos, and other strings uplift these solo musings and add a lighter aspect. Indeed, the collection as a whole is quite the masterpiece; its new leaves adding to the chronicles of melancholy, the tales of “love and lore,” with a bygone grace that has become Diane’s effortless hallmark.