Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum hail from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. With a small band of musicians the two distant cousins who reside in rural agricultural area have produced one hell of an album that evokes CSNY, the Marshall Tucker band, the Band, Grateful Dead, Fairport Convention and other giants of the late sixties rock-folk scene. While credit is due to all involved, the star of the album is Kacy Anderson who’s voice can be described with two words: world beating. Think Sandy Denny when she was in Fairport convention, marry that to a young Joni Mitchell and you’ll get a very good approximation of her singing talent.
The Siren’s Song is a short album of nine largely original titles, the exception being ‘Go And Leave Me’, a traditional song introduced to them by Norma Waterson. The style and sound is electric folk with a nod to country rock. Kacy Anderson sings and plays acoustic guitar, 12 string guitar and fiddle, Clayton Linthicum is on electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, piano, pedal steel, recorder and Marxophone (a fretless zither), Mike Silverman plays drums and percussions while Shuyler Jansen covers electric bass.
As mentioned already the album is a magnificent platform for Kacy Anderson’s voice, she sings in a natural and unassuming fashion, not old fashioned but rather timeless. She doesn’t use any trickery or attempt any fireworks, instead she applies a unique talent with great skill.
Produced by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and recorded by Tom Schick (Ryan Adams, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Wilco etc) the album’s sound quality is good, the instruments are well placed in a wide stage that highlights the vocals. The Siren’s Song is a rewarding if short musical journey that you will enjoy taking again and again. Kacy & Clayton will be touring in May when they will be playing 12 dates across the UK.
Reuben Klein