Album Review: Alela Diane

[FOLK] On the title track of her new album, About Farewell, local songstress Alela Diane sings, "Leaving is the hardest part, that's what we always said/ Once upon the other side, it's best not to look back." Looking back, however, is precisely what Diane spends the length of this thoroughly elegiac and lovely collection of songs doing. About Farewell is, well, about farewells: goodbyes, separations, parting's sweet sorrow, etc. It's easy to draw a connection between the theme and Diane's recent divorce, but over these 10 tracks, the songwriter is clearly talking about more than her ex-husband. Indeed, on "Rose & Thorn," she's her own whipping boy. "Oh, the mess I've made," she laments. "A crimson rose, a hundred thorns." Throughout the record, Diane is accompanied by delicate, gorgeous piano, strings and drums from musicians-about-town Heather Broderick, Holcombe Waller and Neal Morgan, while her voice—always the main draw—is as dusky and dynamic as ever. On About Farewell, Diane may be down, but she's certainly not out.

SEE IT: Alela Diane plays the Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., with Holcombe Waller, on Wednesday, June 26. 7:30 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. All ages. 

WWeek 2015