The Wrecker's Lantern

The sole full-length album from Saint Joan was a very enjoyable example of stripped-down but still warm-feeling folk-rock from the 2000s. Not that it was simply sunny sentiments and feelings throughout: Krisztina Hidasi’s violin added both resonance and, sometimes, a bit of haunting unease. But singer/guitarist and main songwriter Ellen Mary McGee kept everything moving with the feeling of a good fireside performance, her strong voice infusing such songs as the intense “Fire At Sea,” with Matthew Harms’s drums especially strong, “Far Away” and “Singing Bowl.”