Event

Michelle Malone

Michelle Malone's Acoustic Winter is just what the doctor ordered for dark and cold days without being at all prescriptive. Instead of being that boisterous friend who insists you brighten up and ditch your winter blues you know the kind that drags you out to vapid parties and when that fails, douses you in the glare of a sun lamp and puts on a loud Salsa station Acoustic Winter is the friend who curls up beside you in the dark. Each song, from the soaring "Home" to the ethereal "Mirror Ball," exudes warmth and wisdom while conveying an intimate knowledge of life's deepest loves and losses. Like echoing harmonics, these central themes resonate throughout the record, providing Acoustic Winter with a mesmerizing continuity of mood the rare kind achieved by records like Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and Ray LaMontagne's Till The Sun Turns Black. Acoustic Winter is Malone's most stripped down recording to date and it reveals a songwriter and a musician at the top of her game. However, it is Acoustic Winter's sheer vulnerability that stands out as truly breathtaking.