Moving over to the States for one more Debut disc, Elizabeth Nicholson is a singer and harpist from Portland, Oregon, whose Sink or Swim is an appealing collection of traditional and original songs and tunes.  Her pleasant voice recalls bluegrass as much as misty mores, and her material spans the Atlantic from Irish songs such as "Black is the Color" to the Appalachia-via-Britain ballad "The House Carpenter."  Her original harp tunes are like brilliant bits of light, which made it no surprise that she also works in music therapy.  The set closes with a mesmerizing, nearly nine-minute version of the Scottish ballad "Fair Annie," which draws on Andrew Calhoun's recent retelling.
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Ms.Nicholson's interpretation of traditional, Celtic, old English and original repertoire is a stunning achievement.  Her harp playing reveals a sure and expressive touch.  There are no jagged edges.  All of which offers an ideal compliment to the sweet but unsentimental style of her individual voice.
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Elizabeth Nicholson - Sink Or Swim (Own Label)
Portland-based Elizabeth has a background in both folk and classical musics, and is an accomplished exponent of the Celtic Harp who also sings (beautifully); according to her website, she's also a teacher and a strong advocate for “the use of harp music to promote health and alleviate pain”. Certainly the latter features would seem to apply to this album, for its overall feel is restful yet stimulating. Here, Elizabeth performs six songs and three instrumentals. The latter comprise a slow air and a pair of jigs, all composed by Elizabeth herself but very much in the Celtic tradition, and a lively treatment of the traditional Kitty O'Shea (on which Elizabeth multitracks guitar and second harp parts). For the songs, Elizabeth draws on that same tradition for her versions of Black Is The Colour, House Carpenter and Dearest Nancy, while she uses Andrew Calhoun's expert version of the ballad of Fair Annie; the remainder are Elizabeth's own compositions. She gives the majority of the songs a broadly similar treatment, very attractive and melodious (and rather better than merely pleasant, I hasten to add!), and her singing is delicate and pure without being over-precious. Occasionally I can't help but notice a minor shortfall in dramatic contrast within Elizabeth's expressive mode, but she compensates more often than not and she also benefits from the duet vocals of Jen Bernard on two of the songs. As indeed she does from the supporting playing of Rob Barrick (electric bass and highland pipes), Bob Soper (fiddle, mandola etc), Joe Root (piano accordion), Jim Chapman (whistles, bouzouki) and Eddie Parente (electric violins), variously on six of the nine tracks. Fine though these musicians play, Elizabeth's solo unaccompanied singing of Dearest Nancy provides one of the disc's highlights, along with the deliciously appealing Appalachian-country-waltz “ode to absenteeism” of Seven Seas and the veritable mini-epic that is Fair Annie. Basically, anyone who enjoys Celtic-based music well played and sung with a degree of (though not over-much) relaxation, should appreciate Elizabeth's special interpretative qualities.
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