The songs in Sarah Bowman's album "Living" will blow away the listeners out there who are looking for something fresh and new. The diverse styles of the songs expand the limits of the folk music of today. 5 stars!
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I would like to say of Sarah Bowman’s music what Hunter S. Thompson said about so many things, that it goes through you like a combine on a gas tank full of ether, or rather what so many critics say of inspirational music, that it is like a needle main-lined to the soul; however, her debut album, Living, possesses more subltety than needles, more graceful power than combines, and a truth more poignant and lasting than both.
	Through the fourteen tracks of Living, Bowman mines the deep crevasses of human relationships to reveal feelings at turns intoxicating and debilitating.  Her songs explore, prod, and sometimes, explode the recesses of the heart, yet always reveal a precious gem of truth.  Whether it’s the classic kiss off song, “Burned“: “to know what I don’t mean to you / and therefore, what you don’t mean to me”; the song of unwilling parting, “Walking Outside": “I watch you as the sunlight dances along“; or the song of yearning, Living Outside: “If my will is strong enough to carry me”; Bowman forges her songs perfectly with the right alloy of ironic detachedness and intense intimacy.   
	A rare blend of Bluegrass instrumentation, Haitian percussion, and Iowan charm, Bowman creates a sound, though reminiscent of the Indigo Girls, Joni Mitchell, and Traci Chapman, that will strike listeners as surprisingly unique.
	Twelve years in the making from her days playing coffee shops in Davenport, Iowa to her university days in Pittsburgh to her professional life in Baltimore, Living, combines the seasoned songwriting of a wise lyricist with the energetic musicianship of an earnest star-gazer. All of which produces an album that will challenge and entertain listeners, but will, also, encourage them to feel all the intricacies of love and life, and finally, to know the consolations of our sad and beautiful world.
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