The Dirty Lowdown: CD Review: Robert Deeble “Heart Like Feathers”

Saturday, February 11, 2012

CD Review: Robert Deeble “Heart Like Feathers”

Seattle’s Robert Deeble has been busy, lately. After a six year hiatus from making records, he is releasing Heart Like Feathers. A mainstay on the indie folk scene since 1994, Deeble says "I felt my personal life starting to slip,I wanted to re-build who I am at home and not on the road."

That story is told clearly in the songs on Heart Like Feathers. "Undertow," the first single which will have a “B” Side cover of Bob Dylan’s “Ring Them Bells”, grapples with the struggle of fidelity in a relationship. "Or infidelity depending how you view it," elaborates Deeble. Here’s the track, “Ring Them Bells”, which is not included on the album.

Joining Deeble in creating this wonderfully introspective folk album is folk heroine Victoria Williams, named one of the 100 greatest living song writers by Paste Magazine. The album also features Stephen Hodges (drummer with Tom Waits and Mavis Staples) on percussion, Ric Hordinski (co-founder of noted Americana band Over The Rhine) with guitar on "Eucharist" and "The Colors of Dying" and Anna Lynne
Williams of ethereal dream-pop band Trespassers William with vocals on "Undertow."

Jeremy Summer is on Bass, Drummer Jeremy Dybash (formerly with Velour 100, Damien Jurado and Rosie Thomas), Neal Vickers on Cello and Lili De La Mora on additional Backing Vocals. Amanda Lawrence appears on Viola and Tim Westcott supplies “ambience.”

Deeble’s voice reminds me a bit of John Lennon in places, and there are no doubt influences from that place. I also here a bit of James Taylor, in the personal delivery and nature of the songs themselves.

Robert Deeble “Eucharist”

The album is filled with wonderfully produced music that is perfect for quiet times, and meditating on life challenges and rewards. Deeble is a talented singer and song writer which is evidenced, not only by this long awaited album, but by his career recording and performing with the likes of Sam Phillips, Low, and Pedro The Lion over the years. He is a talent to be reckoned with. Oh, by the way, that six year hiatus resulted in not only the new record but also a family – Deeble and his wife recently became foster parents to a baby girl that they have raised since she was three days old. Let’s hope it’s not six more years before we hear more from him.