Rebecca Wright – All I See

Rebecca Wright – All I See

CD review by Tony Smith

TN469-32 – $30

TN168 Jan 25

This album contains original tracks except for the two acknowledged.

The songs are ‘Perfect Weekend’, ‘Sunshine (Part 11)’, ‘All I See’, ‘Frangipani Sunsets’, ‘Here She Is’, ‘Feet and Hands’, ‘February’ by Dar Williams, ‘All Wrong’, ‘By Way of Sorrow’ by Julie Williams, ‘Winter’s Coming’, ‘Listening to My Heart’ and ‘Up and Down (Live)’.

The final track was recorded at the Wintermoon Festival.

This album features Declan Affley Award winner Rebecca Wright on vocals, cello and acoustic guitar.

She is supported by Gary Ward (bass guitar), Erin Sulman (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Jay Bishoff and Mick Thatcher (guitars), Steve Cook (Irish bouzouki, mandolin), Ross Nixon (keyboards), Belinda Ford (Irish flute), Geo Heathcote (saxophones, harmonica) and Alan Kelly (bodhran, guitar, backing vocals).

Full lyrics are supplied but these are not vital as Rebecca’s voice is clear and the arrangements are such that the instruments do not overwhelm the words.

Pretty clearly, the title of the album reveals that these songs are a personal viewpoint.

Each concerns an aspect of love and relationships.

Some are about the joy of finding a special person, while others regret the ending of a relationship, or the effect of being apart.

Others again are about memories and how we cling to them.

Some even explore the singer’s own personality and what she discovers about herself when in a relationship, her needs, her weaknesses, and her strengths.

Interestingly, Rebecca writes consistently from the female point of view.

Another important theme is change and development.

For one so young to be able to look back and write about how she is changed is rare.

It is also rare for a young person to be able to project ahead and put herself in the mind of an elderly woman, but she does this very well.

In more recent years, Rebecca teamed with Donald McKay and moved to Scotland to immerse herself in Scottish traditional music.

The partnership has proved highly successful with both their live performances and the ‘Over Burns and Braes’ album popularly acclaimed.

In All I See, Rebecca Wright showed great potential as a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist.

It is no surprise that she went on to enjoy further success both in presenting traditional music and in writing originals.