Alela Diane - To Be Still

To Be Still is the follow-up to psych folk revivalist Alela Diane's small-but-oh-so-perfectly-formed debut, The Pirate's Gospel. Diane's distinctive bluegrass-tinged vocal delivery - a cracked-caramel amalgam of Vashti Bunyan, Natalie Merchant and Iris DeMent - errs on understatement, the fragile, fraying edges occasionally cracking with dark-hued pain or blooming into a coyote's full-moon wail. The dominant tone is reflective and nostalgic nd deftly describes assorted hymnals to the natural world, the past, family, friends, love and life getting in the way of living.