Style: Enthralling drones, impassioned singing; compare to Daniel Menche, Woven Hand
Top tracks: “Song for Azariah,” “Christ Among Us,” “Root & Bough”
The eight songs that make up this challenging and intense work have been stripped down to the absolute bare bones. Many feature Higgs’ reedy but intoxicating voice over the drone of a harmonium or lightly played guitar and banjo. Others are just a lone instrument or a voice singing into the void. The effect of these songs is soul-stirring, bringing to mind the spirituals captured by Harry Smith in his Anthology of American Folk Music and the passionate wails of an a cappella Pentecostal choir. It is music to give yourself over to, a meditative and heady swirl of sound to bring you closer to the Holy Spirit.
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