Sarah McQuaid
Walking Into White
Reviewed by: Jane Roser
Born in Spain, raised in Chicago and currently living in England, vocalist/guitarist Sarah McQuaid’s fourth solo album, Walking Into White incorporates inspiration from children’s books to church hymns, weaving different textures into each of the 14 tracks, accentuating her deep vocals (almost reminiscent of folk legend Judy Collins).
Traveling from Cornwall, England to Cornwall, New York to work with co-producers Jeremy Backofen and Sarah’s cousin Adam Pierce, the album was recorded and mixed within three weeks, occasionally using a mini-cassette recorder mounted on a mic stand to achieve a raw sound. McQuaid is known in the folk world for her expertise in DADGAD tuning (which is done by taking your guitar in standard tuning and dropping the 1st, 2nd and 6th string down a whole step. This method is often used by Celtic musicians and popularized by folk guitarist Davey Graham in the 1960s).
Three of the tracks were inspired by Arthur Ransome’s “Swallows and Amazons”, which McQuaid read to her children at bedtime. In “Where The Wind Decides To Blow” McQuaid sings of two children taking their sled out to a frozen lake when a blizzard arrives: “We’ve got to ride it/We’re blinded/In the white-out of the driving snow/We’re going where the wind decides to blow.”
“Canticle Of The Sun (All Creatures Of Our God And King)” is a hymn written by St. Francis of Assisi with text paraphrased by William Henry Draper. I remember this song well because we’ve been singing it in my church since I can remember. It’s a beautiful, inspirational song and one of my favorites to sing along to (and the congregations, too since it’s one of the few we can actually sing in unison without messing up).
McQuaid includes three a cappella songs called “Sweetness And Pain I, II and III” dotted throughout the record, almost serving as a segue from one song to the next and textured with the sound of falling rain. Each song lasts just under a minute and is lovely in it’s simplicity.
While it’s nothing new under the sun; none of the tracks stand out or can really even be differentiated from each other, Walking Into White is a lovely album with rich textures that read like a bedtime story. Listen to it at night with a cup of warm milk and drift off to sleep dreaming of winter storms and foggy mountains.
Rating: Listenable
