Track Listing

1. Dry Grass & Shadows
2. White As Diamonds
3. Age Old Blues
4. To Be Still
5. Take Us Back
6. The Alder Trees
7. My Brambles
8. The Ocean
9. Every Path
10. Tatted Lace
11. Lady Divine

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1097 in Music
• Released on: 2009-02-16
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
'To Be Still' is the second album from American folk singer/songwriter Alena Diana. Inspired by her surroundings in therural north of California, Diana builds upon her sparser sounding earlier work by adding a fuller range of instrumentation, whilst in turn managing to keep the pastoral folk soundthat earned her debut the Rough Trade 2007 album of the year award.

Customer Reviews

Timeless Beauty
Alela Diane's debut The Pirate's Gospel was one of those albums that snuck up on you. Pleasant enough, but seemingly innocuous on a first listen, repeated spins ensured it would entrench itself in your soul and place you firmly under its warm embrace. A mix of old world folk, campfire and shanty coupled to Diane's uniquely affecting voice; it was undoubtedly, for many, one of the records of 2007. Two years on, after a hectic tour schedule and collaboration that have included the wonderful Headless Heroes project, alongside David Holmes, she releases her sophomore effort To Be Still.

Opener Dry Grass & Shadows marks an immediate departure from her debut. Where The Pirate's Gospel relied on the plaintive and often quirky duo of Diane's voice and her acoustic, To Be Still sees her flexing her song-writing muscle, fleshing out the skeletal approach from her debut with traditional instrumentation including fiddles, strings, lap steel and some percussion. Where this works, the effects are enchanting; the aforementioned opener, where lap steel swaddles guitar and percussion to create an enveloping pastoral drone. The breathtaking, cello-backed atmosphere of White As Diamonds, the banjo chug of The Alder Trees and the towering The Ocean are wonderfully majestic and tear at your heartstrings rather than tug at them. On the rare occasion her song craft doesn't hit these heights, you yearn for the bare sound of her debut, the title track in particular, recalls the overworked nature of Iron & Wine's latest output.

However fleshed out these songs are however, Diane's voice is still the lynchpin behind this project and it's still wonderful, perhaps even grown in confidence, her range filling every nuance from hoarse and uncertain to effortlessly soaring. The themes of nature, so prominent in her debut are once again ubiquitous in her follow-up. Even when the themes turn to relationships, family and friends as in the `Rocky Racoon'-esque plod of Age Old Blues, accompanied by some hoary old wolf-hound vocals, the analogies always wind themselves back to the intimate knowledge of her Nevada homelands.

To Be Still is a strong follow-up to an excellent debut. Diane's voice still powerfully touching, while the traditional compositions add an extra dimension to her craft. While the album sometimes feels that it lacks the intimacy and endearing charm of her debut, there is no doubt that these qualities will emerge with time. This is a timeless-sounding record and whether you're a fan or a stranger drawn in by the hype, this is certainly worth a purchase.

The Lady Divine with "those songs for children to sing "
I knew within the first few words sung by Alela Diane that I was going to love To Be Still. It had nothing to do with the instrumentation which I shall get onto but with her voice and more pertinently her singing style. I loathe caterwaulers and side-splitting over emoting but Alela Diane like the truly great female singers Joni Mitchell, Judee Sill , Catherine Howard sings with a purity and lack of affectation that lets these terrific songs breathe and makes them far more affecting than any amount of tonsil torturing hysterics. Though she does go a touch OTT on "Tatter Lace".
Just listen to the way she sings the truly lovely "Take Us Back" .Her voice occasionally quavers slightly but soars over other lines with out a ripple and the way she harmonise on the high notes .....quite bewitching stuff. The music is an intoxicating mix of folk and modern Americana with chunky cello's , sawing violins , banjo, mandolin, piano, guitar and adroit off kilter percussion.
"White As Diamonds" reminds me of the wonderful song "Rapture" of Laura Vier,s 2004 album Carbon Glacier ,an album and artist who she shares a lot in common with. The lyrics use natural imagery a great deal and there is also a naturalistic uncluttered approach to the song writing. Mostly there is sombre air to the songs but occasionally ,like the violin on "Take Us Back" ,it gets a little playful .Michael Hussey duets on "Age Old Blue " , a song that recalls the brilliant Kate Rusby song "All Gods Angels " off Sleepless. If I am being hyper picky, which by that start to the sentence you can tell I am , I would say that the album is a touch one dimensional and lacks variety -the middle suite of songs especially.
To Be Still is still an album I would heartily recommend . It has an intimacy and ambience that is hugely refreshing in these harum scarum times. It,s like Alela Diane has taken a step back from the world around her and decided to just concentrate on the things she deems to be important , the things worth singing about. That's probably why this album works so well. The line goes on the lovely album closer "Lady Divine " :"those songs for children to sing ". These are not kiddie songs but they are certainly worth singing and more importantly well worth hearing .

pure beauty
In the space of one short weekend this has gone from being a good purchase to being a revelation to being one of my 'desert island discs' to being the songs I want to hear when I'm on my death bed.
If you don't know her work it's a bit like a not annoying Joan Baez with good songs, it mixes Kristin Hersh with Iron & Wine and then dips it all in bluegrass molasses, but the voice is hers, and it's just beautiful.