Forget any fall from grace, this shows Talbot ascending even further still.

Release Date : 21st November 2025

Label : Self-Released

Format : CD / Vinyl / Digital

LEAPS & BOUNDS

It seems only yesterday we were looking at Sing It For A Lifetime, the last album from Heidi Talbot, astonished to realise it has been three and a half years. Irrespective, the leaps and bounds, from that release to this, are immense, this being a supremely confident set of brand new songs, all played to perfection by Talbot and a top table of, largely, Glasgow accompanists. Interspersed with her own songs are a few, once more, from ace songsmith, Boo Hewerdine, the mention of whose name is almost an automatic guarantor of quality. Likewise, her sometime mentor, Dirk Powell, musical craftsman of all things Appalachian, and a regular of/at the Transatlantic Sessions, is on board to add guitar, accordion and fiddle.

AN INSTINCTIVE DEFTNESS OF TOUCH

But this album is really all about Talbot, with her own songs in tribute to feminine power, myth and memory, to goddesses, heroines and the women who carry their songs across generations. Melody is the key that unlocks the lyricism, the stories all conveyed through her pure voice, described once, memorably and accurately, as “a mix of awestruck and tender.” She has also produced this album herself, a first for her, demonstrating an instinctive deftness of touch and balance.

This sensitivity is exemplified by opener, Mist. Whilst essentially a Hewerdine composition, I would say it still fits well within the core thematic of the project, an appreciation of how the elements themselves are contained within a a spiritual and essentially feminine dimension.

Flickering echoed electric guitar, from Powell, and piano from Tom Gibbs set the tone, before Talbot’s yearning voice keens delicately: “let the mist roll in, then I know the Goddess knows I’m near.” As Powell’s guitar ripples, there is also a restrained undercurrent of momentum, much like the tide, from Phil Wilkinson’s drums, with some truly gorgeous double bass from Euan Burton. Toby Shaer, sometime Lost Boy, also takes a trip north of the border to supply flute, whilst Adam Holmes, who has worked frequently with Talbot, adds his contrasting additional vocal parts. The final part of the jigsaw comes with the presence of Scotland’s musical Mr Everywhere, Innes White, on acoustic guitar.

A HEALING SALVE

Talbot’s Like You Were Never Here has a substantial drum part driving a folk-rock song of not quite farewell, if delivered after the leaving. I’m sort of struggling not to say a Dear John letter, but essentially that’s how it feels. Talbot herself says it is more a prayer written in grief on a rainy day in Fife. A string section sweeps in to soften the pain in the lyric, with a healing salve of backing vocals from daughter, Mollie Mae Talbot McCusker. The strings deliver the mellifluous textures that only Seonaid Aitken and her crack team; Kristan Harvey, Patsy Reid and Alice Allen, can provide. Gibbs’ piano is again tremendous.

Nominally the title track, Grace, addresses both the warrior queen, Grace O’Malley (Gráinne Mhaol) and any more abstract meaning of the word, and is awash with East European cadences to blend in with the Celtic, in a remarkable gypsy pirate fusion. Brigid features Talbot’s own guitar, and that of Shaer, as the predominant scaffolding, a majestic air that is packed with the flavours of her Co. Kildare homeland. Brigid is the Celtic goddess of music, poetry, agriculture, healing arts and prophecy, an impressive portfolio by any reckoning, and is a song that carries echos of Sandy Denny’s Fotheringay in the guitar parts. Sung part in Irish, it shows this singer displaying every iota of her deceptively fragile vocal strength.

A SWIRLING SWAY OF RHYTHM

If you can imagine an odd hybrid of upper register Kate Bush, with Nanci Griffith and Sinead O’Connor, well that’s how she sounds for The Little Death, a second Hewerdine composition. With shards of sharp piano skittering over the string arrangement, there’s even a distant memory of Eatha Kitt in the delivery, so one to definitely file under quirky. Anna Parnell then tells the tale of the less well remembered, but equally, in her way, influential sister of Charles Stewart Parnell. With a swirling sway of rhythm, it is closest to country and Irish in style, if with some lovely low whistle from Shaer. It certainly shows how well Hewerdine is responding to Talbot’s brief. (Not that Talbot isn’t convincing; she is, entirely, but, in passing, this is a song I would love to hear sung by Lisa O’Neill.)

AN ALBUM PACKED FULL OF GEMS

A hint of The Water Is Wide seeps through the majestic folk of Fare Thee Well, a consummate collage of piano, vocals and low whistle, possibly the outstanding of all Talbot’s compositions here, an almost painfully yearning ballad that sounds centuries old. Powell chooses this moment to add his own fiddle. This album really is packed full of gems and, arriving any sooner, might have made any of the many end of year favourites, my own included. The glut continues with the oddly entitled Rainbows And Kinky Kisses, with some Bush-y oo-oos, to provide a chorus over the lush bass, piano, guitar and strings. If I have understood correctly, the title refers to her recipe for overcoming the pain of a broken relationship.

By neither Talbot nor Hewerdine, In Shame, Love, In Shame is an old song, and is as much a showcase for the additional vocals of daughter Mollie Mae. Written by Sean McCarthy, who, in the 1950’s and 60’s, wrote a number of songs that are now assumed to be traditional; Step It Out Mary is another of his. It also benefits from wispy bursts of Powell’s fiddle, over a precise beat of the drum, piano and bowed bass. Grafton Street begins to wrap things up, Fred Koller’s reminisce of the famous Dublin thoroughfare, and how life goes on, irrespective the individual. A returning Holmes adds more of his sandpaper voice to the icy crystal of hers.

AS MAGICAL AS IT IS MOVING

The last track is something a little different, starting with captured conversation from Talbot’s late grandmother, Kathleen, after whom the song is entitled. Becoming a slow old-timey waltz, first Talbot picks up the vocal, and then daughter number two, Jessica Rose, slots in alongside her mother, with her sister doing likewise. It is a simple tune but, as the three voices mingle, it is as magical as it is moving, a song of somehow full circle.

TOUR DE FORCE (& TOUR)

This really is a tour de force. I gather it may have come out a little earlier, had not Talbot sustained a significant ankle injury, needing time to recover and recuperate. On that account, even if it doesn’t make the ATB end of year chart, nonetheless consider it an honorary bystander.

For live shows, next year, it is Shaer and White who will be providing the key accompaniment. In the meantime, this year sees her share a few dates with Hewerdine. See website, below, for more details.

See if Fare Thee Well convinces you of her grace:

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