Below the Waves

The first album proper by American-English singer Heidi Berry, after a 1987 mini-album Firefly, is a lost gem of folk song. ‘Lost,’ most probably, because it landed in the wrong context — released on Creation Records, best known for indie pop, jangling guitars, and noise rock, Berry didn’t quite seem to get the push she needed to allow these ten gorgeous songs to take flight with a larger audience. But what an album — Berry’s voice, a beautiful sigh, clear and unadorned, recalls much-loved folk legends like June Tabor or Bridget St. John; the songs here, acoustic and subtly ornamented, shuffle between the naked (“Below The Waves”), the glacial (“Gather All The Hours”) and, in the epic, sweeping “Northshore Train,” one of Berry’s most emotionally resonant, powerful performances.