Kelly Hunt
Ozark Symphony
Compass Records
3.5 Out of 5Stars
The daughter of an opera singer and a saxophonist, Kelly Hunt, who was raised in Memphis Tennessee, has music running through her veins. With influences that range from Rachmaninov and Joni Mitchell to Mississippi John Hurt, she grew up singing in choirs, pouring over poetry books, and writing her own music. After being introduced to the banjo, Hunt developed an old-time picking style and pursued the possibilities of a career in farming, French bread-making, and visual arts, before wholly devoting herself to music and the recording of her debut album, Even the Sparrow.
Its follow-up, Ozark Symphony, finds Dirk Powell at the helm, and yet despite the added enhancement his presence might imply, it’s a decidedly unassuming effort overall, mostly threadbare arrangements that come across in the form of a traditional tapestry. As one might expect, Powell handles the majority of the instrumentation, with additional hints of cello, violin, flute, pipes, and percussion tossed in by other contributors for good measure. Hunt herself provides the lead vocals, banjos, and acoustic guitar. The songs that result more or less meander along with a casual, quiet lilt, whether in the quiet pluck of strings that color “Evangeline” and “You Make Me High,” the sweet and serendipitous serenade “Top of the World” or the moving and meaningful lyricism of “Everybody Knows.”
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Hunt doesn’t stray far from her roots, and in that regard, the archival influences are never far from the surface. The bluesy tint of “Take Me Back To Memphis” manages to incorporate a certain ragtime feel, while the back porch sounds shared in the title track and “Be Still” leave no doubt as to her essential influences. So too, the easy amble of songs such as “On the Bayou” and “You Make Me High” allows the emotion to override any other element. Likewise, “Over the Mountain” sounds like an old forlorn folk song, sung acapella with tenderness and tranquility as its only additives.
Ultimately, Ozark Symphony is, as its title implies, an ode to authenticity as far as Hunt’s rootsy regimen is concerned. A subdued sound aside, this Symphony still soars.