THE SMOKE FAIRIES – THROUGH LOW LIGHT AND TREES

There is Alt-Folk, Neu-Folk, Pop-Folk and folk with too much time on their hands coming up with folk sub-genres. The Smoke Fairies are old folk, in genre terms; in the classic English tradition of lilting tunes, that drift through woods, over dales and past the hedge-row.That they then blended this with just a touch of Americana (courtesy of some time spent living in New Orleans) is a bonus – witness the dreamy harmonies coupled with the slide-guitar on Strange Moon Rising. These two English lasses – Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies – have been wandering the countryside together for over a decade now, their musical connection beginning in the school choir – slowly letting this debut album Through Low Light and Trees come about more by osmosis than any pre-ordained plan. Just when the high harmonies and foggy disposition of the songs threatens to become twee, they drag us back courtesy of  the darker and more intense tunes like Devil in My Mind and Storm Song; keeping The Smoke fairies well and truly on track for something special.

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