Clare Burson

Silver and Ash (Rounder)

By Dana Raidt
Published: September 19th, 2010 | 7:00pm

Music is a personal endeavor, and in making Silver and Ash, Clare Burson went beyond personal: she intended to tell not her own story, but someone else’s story. Someone still living. This unique album was the culmination of a research project of sorts. Funded by a Six Points Fellowship—which funds artists who explore Jewish ideas and experience—Burson set out to musically document a chunk her grandmother’s life, from 1919 (before the elder woman’s birth) until her escape from Nazi Germany in 1938.

Burson certainly did her homework. She interviewed her grandmother, who eventually settled in Memphis, and traveled to Germany, Latvia, Ukraine, and Lithuania for inspiration and research. The album’s concept is intriguing and ambitious, but unfortunately those of us who don’t have the same knowledge Burson gained in her research likewise don’t have much context in which to put the songs.

Taken at face value as a sort of love letter/art project from granddaughter to grandmother, Silver and Ash is a sweet, although not necessarily engaging, record. The more melancholy songs like “Look Close,” “Losin’ You,” and “The World Turns on a Dime” (which evokes the more upbeat moments of Dark Dark Dark) are excellent and dynamic. Burson’s attempts at more straightforward pop and folk aren’t bad, they just don’t really resonate, especially given the background.

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Rounder Records