“truly beautiful piece of music” Robert Alan Rife – Be That As It May

This is a truly beautiful piece of music and songwriting. The guitar part opening up the track sets the mood superbly, as well as gently dazzling you with detail and skill. The playing and the vocal performance throughout is practically flawless, but what you really notice on top of this is that the emotion of the song comes through with great volume, by means of each part involved. The music itself has a softness, the vocal tone as well and the overall performance style, but the subject matter and the essence of the song speak loudly.

The song has a minimalist presentation in that there is simply the acoustic guitar sound and the leading vocal at the forefront, for the majority of the recording, so what takes place is the expression of a certain set of lyrics, notes and melodies, that express the sentiment of the song perfectly, and that capture and keep hold of your attention throughout. There’s a general feeling of classic folk music to the track – the structure, the poetic nature of the storytelling, and indeed the vocal performance itself, plus later on the bagpipe sound adds something largely unexpected but that fits in with all of this brilliantly. It’s quite possibly one of the most beautiful bagpipe performances of recent years, it’s not something I personally have heard much of in folk songs such as this, but it works so well.

The artist has a stunning voice that increases in emotion and intensity just enough, really underlining the feelings behind all of it, and really driving that melody and that hook with great power, so that you remember it, and you most probably would recognise it at a future time should the song come to your attention again.

By Rebecca Cullen

Rebecca is a Musician and writer from Manchester, UK, with an MA in Song Writing.