"Just like Eddi"
"Some people have their own thing and simply do it to perfection"

EVEN ALLOWING for our response to singing being largely subjective, some voices just do the job, don't they? For me, Eddi Reader is up there with, for instance, Bonnie Raitt and k.d. lang, singers who combine amazing technical control with emotional authority to make their heart-lifting music sound as natural as breathing. And also like them, there's the allusive sense of tradition; Raitt is from the blues, lang from country and Reader, with her Highland spring water clarity and Glasgow burr, sounds like a pop extension of celtic folk. Her best work keeps a whisper of this authenticity while being distinctive and intriguingly lovely.

She's dallied with wordless mood pieces (the gorgeous Howling From Ojai from Eddi Reader (1994)) and a big band '40s film theme (Town Without Pity from Candyfloss And Medicine (1996)), but her default music is gentle, aching songs delicately swathed in acoustic guitars, accordions, electric colours and rolling percussion. In Boo Hewerdine, a writing presence on her last two albums and co-producer here, she has an unostentatious, big-hearted craftsman pal whose low-key insight perfectly complements Reader's own understated passion.

It takes two listeners for the stiller songs to blossom in your imagination. Postcard's tales-of-the-riverbank finger-picking evolves into an ambient wonder, Psychic Reader drifts in a wash of dulcimer and slide. Compared to their natural float, Ron Sexsmith's delightful On A Whim sounds positively contrived. There's catchy, cool rocking on Hummingbird and California but it's when the traditional meets the mysterious this music becomes genuinely alluring.

Chris Ingham talks to Eddi Reader.

How's the career?
" I had to do a bit trickery with this one. We had The Conversation: 'You're not doing megabucks like Whitney or Celine.' I don't play the marketing game very well. I'm sure I would enjoy it if I knew what the hell they were on about but it just doesn't interest me. Eddi Reader did well, Candyfloss was quieter because I chose not to involve anybody. That's what happens when you don't play bits and pieces of a certain game. They were confused by where I was heading, but it doesn't take a great deal of imagination to hear what's good about it. I just think this dumbing down world of feeding people what they're supposed to like is to do with control and I don't have any part of that. So we got a bit less money to do it and it was more prepared rather than meandering in and experimenting. A lot of the songs were done live over seven days."

Has being a single mother compromised your career?
"You can't think like that. I've taken a punch in the face as far as how you deal with it. How do you retain your adolescent energy to create things and also be responsible for two wee growing things? It's a big learning curve but it's really great at the moment. Music is about life, life is not about music. It's really important that I have them."

What attracts you to Boo Hewerdine's music?
" He speaks in a clear voice, lovely melodies. I wanted to sing something a bit more truthful and he was just there. When I first heard him sing his Slow Divorce, I was weeping."

And Ron Sexsmith?
" He sent me a couple of verses through the Internet, he thought they were shite, and I was 'no no no' and I recorded On A Whim within a week of getting it."

Writer: Chris Ingham

from Mojo, June '98 issue

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