Sandra McCracken hinted she was a talent to be reckoned with several solo albums ago, but it was her recent collaboration with musical partner Derek Webb on their Ampersand EP that confirmed she was indeed one to watch. A flawless collection, it was embossed with memorable melodies and a boundless charm that made every song a treasure, and the set as a whole one that begged repeated encounters.
McCracken has duplicated that feat with her new solo set, Red Balloon, and it’s as graceful and boundless as its title implies. Two EPs boasting five songs apiece - two separate sides as it were - offer ten more examples of McCracken’s magnificent singing and superb song craft. Lush, radiant and beautiful beyond measure, it portends further greatness from an artist who’s clearly yet to get her due. A song like “Saturn’s Fields” brings to mind the anthemic ring of Paul Simon’s ”American Tune,” while “Guardian” and “The High Country” each seem as if they’re sung with the voice borrowed from an angel, soaring with an operatic lilt that Sarah McLachlan could otherwise mistake as her own. So too, the affirming assuredness of “Lose You” and “Lock and Key” betray a confidence and craft that that lifts Red Balloon - and with it McCracken herself -- to the highest plateau of today’s new folk vanguard.
Singer/songwriters are a plentiful breed these days and it’s all too easy to take any aspiring entrant for granted. It would be a mistake to suggest McCracken is merely an also-ran, but happily it only takes a single listen to Red Balloon to dispel that notion entirely.
--Lee Zimmerman [November 2, 2008]
