Enchanted from the outset, 'Neon Dream', the new album from Audrey Spillman, opens with a memorable, on-the-road-esque, escapist melody, dedicated to the one she loves – who just happens to be her husband and producer Neilson Hubbard, a founding member of The Orphan Brigade.
The multi-talented pair have teamed up to make a personal masterpiece; a collection of nine beautiful songs that demonstrate the diversity and range of Spillman’s vocals. By flowing from the opening track ‘Austin Motel’ into her cover of the classic ‘Summertime’ from Porgy and Bess, the listener is ultimately captivated and spellbound.
Put it like this, frankly, this is as good a cover of ‘Summertime’ as it gets. Oft-covered over the decades, Spillman proves she has the range and vocal ability to not just make this her own, but to truly deliver a spine-tingling version. Don’t just take it from me – BBC’s Whispering Bob Harris said:
This is amazing. Considering how many times this song has been recorded, to bring something new and powerful from it is a true achievement.
It was one of those songs that inspired her to sing, since the first time she heard it on an Ella Fitzgerald compilation as a child:
The reason I’m so drawn to this song is that it creates a visceral reaction within me. As an artist, I try to create that emotion as well to the best of my ability. I want to create an intimacy with the listener by creating an emotive space – that is the theme that runs through this album for me.
This is a personal work of art, flowing with emotion, with joy, with grief, with the full spectrum but primarily with love – the love she feels for her little boy, her husband, her father and grief at losing her step mum to cancer. She’s rolled all that love up into her music and translated it into a neon dream.
I truly felt myself falling in love with this album the more I listened. Every track brings its own pleasure to the mix – but the stand outs have to be ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, and the powerful ‘Breakthrough’ – where this woman breaks through into a great big rock rollercoaster of a song.
Then there’s ‘Red Balloon’ – a reflective glance back to childhood, and ‘Little Light Of Mine‘ – clearly for the new love of her life, her little boy. ‘White River’ is a dark narrative about the plight of the Cherokee Indians, hinting that she’s got even more sonic textures to surface in albums to come.
The final track ‘Go On And Fly’, which features a guest harmony by Garrison Starr, was written as her step-mother was dying. Spillman herself says she’s proud of this album:
I feel like I said exactly what I wanted to say, in the way that I wanted to say it.
‘Neon Dream’ – a beautiful, sensitive, artistic, charming and enchanting album. Highly recommended.