Rumbling folk joys are taking the country by storm – and rightly so. Between the likes of Katie Spencer and Chris Brain, two of many champions of the genre out there, plucking away with the best of them, there is a need to stretch a little closer to the pop-oriented tunes. Katherine Priddy does so well but manages to keep the originality and fresh feel of folk observations pure and honest on The Pendulum Swing. Opener Returning is just that for Priddy, who offers up her second record, a classy showcase of deeply rich and textured songs. Those static seconds, the comfortable and relaxed grind which comes through this opener sets a scene which will stick in your mind for as long as the folk boom continues.
It shows no signs of stopping, and with the calming charms of First House on the Left, a visit to a home from the past where Priddy pulls this record’s title from, folk has legs yet. Long, sprawling times for the future – and rightly so. A tremendously open yet intimate appeal filters through these works, and The Pendulum Swing is dependent on a lush responsibility to make do with the bricks and mortar it hopes to attach emotional depth to. It works well. Flickers of string come good on this piece, the tale travelled through with the same depth of exploring the house. Slick guitar work and a fear of heartbreak make up These Words of Mine, and this is the sign of true change for Priddy. Her presentation of the usual heartbreaks and hold-ups of life are beyond what is available now.
Slick and relaxed yet so fully motivated, moved by a real desire to know a listener and to feel for their hardships, The Pendulum Swing is full of tempered agony. Folk is not a container but a starting point. Priddy fires the pistol of the old west on the clanging, acoustic beauties of Does She Hold You Like I Did. There is more at play here than calm works. Tremendous love letters like Father of Two find the complexities of a fatherly relationship. It is not all rosy. There is a struggle like any loving relationship – and Priddy provides such a wonderfully constant effect with her acoustic thrills here. Passing on through like ships in the night gives a lush and memorable depth to Anyway, Always, and this is the constant Priddy provides. There is always a sense of evocative, hopeful memory reflected on as a heartbreak or earnest lesson in what life should be, and what it turns into.
Nothing intense from its style or instrumentals but Priddy has a way of working her words into those hot-blooded acts and recollections. The Pendulum Swing does, indeed, pivot back and forth between the glory days of youth and the darker experiences which benefit from hindsight. At the time of unfolding, they feel like heartbreak, crushing blows to your ego and everything in between which feels so uncomfortable to plough through. But Priddy insists her listeners must stay strong and weather the storm – because at the end of it is a bountiful reflection set to the tune of The Pendulum Swing, an exceptional piece and another clear, crucial example of a folk music boom spreading wider across the UK.
