Port O'Brien - Threadbare

Port O’Brien’s All We Could Do Was Sing was a lovely, sea shanty-ish piece of hippy folk that celebrated something, some spiritual thing… Here, on Threadbare, the album has two parts – a continuation of that celebratory something, and a deeply sombre part, affected by the death of a loved one.

There is a lot of spiritual vocal music around in folk these days, and we have, in musicians Van Pierszalowski and Cambria Goodwin, two proper, authentic folkies – he works on his father’s salmon boat every summer, and she works in a cannery, and then they get back together to make sea-inspired music.

Where it works really well, such as on Sour Milk/ Salt Water, Love Me Through, or single My Will Is Good, Threadbare is a lovely way to spend time – like a folkier Delta Spirit. Where it gets more downbeat, you’ll either need more patience or access to the Skip button.

Rating 7/10
Mike Rea