Songs “organically formed and shaped by time, dreams, thoughts, rain and wind.”  Bity Booker turns on the charm and adds dustings of humour and wicked glee on There’s No Song About A Stone – her “first non-debut album.”

FIRST NON-DEBUT ALBUM

She refuses to call it her ‘debut’ album although, perhaps according to the strictest definition of the term, that’s what it is.  Bity Booker, the Italian/Australian artist, composer and performer who is becoming a regular feature at At The Barrier, prefers the term: “… my first non-debut album.”  That’s because, although There’s No Song About A Stone is Bity’s first full-length collection of songs to be released in her own name, she’s been recording and releasing music for yonks.  In forms that span the entire spectrum, from death metal to the alt-folk that we’re growing to love with an enduring passion.

Now based in Thanet and London, Bity is a lover of nature and folklore and those twin passions permeate every fibre of her music.  That’s something we’ve known for quite some time, having already been charmed to the very soles of our feet by Bity’s EPs, Dreaming In The Morning (2022) and The Frog, The Mouse, The Ship, The Cabin Boy (2025).  And, as Bity herself will freely admit – she doesn’t just sing her songs; she casts them!

SONGS ORGANICALLY FORMED

Bity Booker isn’t averse to reinterpreting a trad song or two, but the nine songs that make up There’s No Song About A Stone are all her own work.  Like with the rest of her recent offerings, she recorded the album at home on her 4-track tape machine and the album features nothing except Bity’s unique voice, accompanied by her softly-yet-deftly plucked acoustic guitar (plus a few atmospheric background sounds).  And, just like previous offerings, physical copies of the album – whether in CD format or (if you’re quick – numbers are limited…) blue-marbled vinyl – are housed in covers that feature Bity’s hand-drawn artwork.

Looking back at There’s No song About A Stone, Bity had this to say: “I do like to take my time making things in a way that makes me happy, out of the commercial sphere and outside of norms and rules.  I like to think of my creations as something organically formed and shaped by time, dreams, thoughts, rain and wind.  These tape recordings feel very much alive; in the background you can hear sounds of birds, people, the sounds of London, all of which were in the room with me while recording.  The album includes some of my favourite songs, some of which you may have already heard at my gigs and some never heard before.  It is my favourite thing that I have ever made so far.  I hope you will love it.”

There are no worries on that score Bity – we do love it.  There’s No Song About A Stone is an album that gathers together the best of Bity Booker and presents her songs in all their natural charm – with a few sprinklings of humour and wicked glee thrown in for good measure…

NESTING SWALLOWS

Soft strums of Bity’s guitar and the sound of a hooting owl provide the backdrop to The Owl Song, that album’s opening track.  Bity’s pastoral lyrics describe the experience of a nighttime forest walk and she delivers them with crystal intimacy.  I’m immediately reminded of both Kate Bush and The Incredible String Band – and Bity seems to have a special place that’s permanently reserved at THAT particular table…

We’ve already enjoyed a foretaste of Love Is Like A Swallow in The Spring, the album’s lead single, a song inspired by the swallows that, each year, build their nests in the eaves of Bity’s parents’ house in Umbria.  There’s a wonderful childlike delight to Bity’s lyrics, as she compares the, often, fleeting nature of love to the short springtime presence of the visiting swallows: “Love is like a swallow in the spring – comes and goes like a swallow in the spring.”  And, as Bity sings those words, she captures the feel of an ancient, traditional ballad.

With In the Garden, Bity takes her listeners on a psych-folk tour of the garden of her mind.  It’s easy to imagine this one being performed by a medieval minstrel yet, at the same time it’s classic Bity Booker and it’s one of the album’s true highlights.  There might not be too much going on, but listeners will be thoroughly entranced.

NIGHT IS DAY AND UP IS DOWN

One of the first things to impress Bity when she first moved to London were the wild parakeets that she observed flying around, so she wrote a song – London Parrots – in their honour.  It’s an excellent, dreamy, song – and I’m impressed by Bity’s fluent fingerpicking on her guitar as she performs it.  I’m thrilled, too, by her charmingly observational lyrics as Bity ponders where the parakeets came from.  Did they follow her to London from Australia?  Are they from Spain?  Or – a leftfield speculation – did they escape from Jimi Hendrix’s cage?  Who really cares?  As Bity says – when they fly, they give us hope.

For the album’s midpoint, Bity takes a few moments to reflect upon the idyllic lakeside horse rides that she used to take, with the brief – yet still charming – Dewdrops, before heading into more challenging territory.  The Ballad of Lost Town is a song inspired by the legends that emanate from the tiny Northern Territory settlement of Larrimah – the ‘Lost Town’ of the song’s title.  The song is something of an epic, with Bity assuming the role of an engaging storyteller, as she unfolds the yarn of a place where “night is day, up is down,” the wedding vicar wears a funeral gown and the local bakery has burned down.  Her tone of voice conveys mystery and intrigue but, as it’s Bity telling the story, you kinda guess that she’s kidding us a little…

BITY BOOKER – GOING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

I can think of few writers, outside of that exclusive Kate Bush/Incredible String Band/Bity Booker triumvirate, who would speculate over the fate of a shed tear.  But that’s the concept that feeds The Tear, a song in which Bity ponders the long journey to be taken from tear duct to the ocean.  There’s an oriental feel to Bity’s music and a note of tenderness in her voice, as she makes her observations.

There’s a lot of naïve charm on show on There’s No Song About A Stone, but things take a notably more sinister turn for the quasi-historical ballad, Love Can Pay the Price.  Bity’s lyrics recall the fate of Sir Walter Raleigh’s head, after the former national hero had been executed for treason.  Bity’s tune has a courtly air that’s wholly appropriate and her voice has a tone of ghastly relish as she sings the song’s humorously gruesome lyrics.

And this delightful album is wrapped up by The Crow: “A song for the people of the night.”  The titular crow bids “Goodnight” to the line of late-night revelers as they pass his perch in the tree beside the local church, as Bity signs off – at least for now.  It’s a pleasant ending to a wonderful album.  Bity Booker is, it seems, going from strength to strength.

Watch Bity Booker perform Parrots in London – a track from that album – below:

Bity Booker: Website

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