Laura Gibson – La Grande

Laura Gibson hails from Portland, Oregon, but La Grande owes little to that city’s signature brand of introspective indie; her first record on City Slang exudes a backwoods warmth, and is more beholden to the US folk and country traditions. The vocals are closely-miked throughout, allowing Gibson’s rich-yet-childlike voice – Karen Dalton is a comparison that springs to mind – to shine through, particularly on the more stripped-down pieces, such as Crow/Swallow.

Elsewhere, the record’s appropriation of diverse instrumentation – including pump organ, vibraphone, synth, marimba and steel guitar – gives it a lustrous, cinematic quality that recalls Nina Nastasia’s The Blackened Air. Gibson rarely lets that omnivorous musicianship impede her songs, however; La Grande is too intimately tied to the landscapes of Oregon that inspire it to lose focus. Contemporary records in the American gothic folk tradition that manage to assert their own distinctive personality are rare, but that’s what Gibson has produced here.