To hear Alice Howe sing is to be enraptured by the natural, unaffected beauty of her voice. There’s no artifice, no histrionics — just honest, authentic, emotionally resonant singing in the tradition of the roots music that shaped her.
On Circumstance, her second and latest album, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter guitarist displays her vocal prowess and introspective writing in abundance, mining both her heart and her musical tastes for a deep, personal journey across an Americana soundscape dotted with blues, folk, country, soul and rock. Recorded in two sessions at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Etta James and Wilson Pickett once shook the walls, the record channels their spirits with 11 stirring tracks that pull no punches diving into the vagaries of the heart and her own personal journey. As an old soul inside a 30-something millennial, Alice puts her stamp on Americana’s venerable strands with 10 standout originals evoking both the classic singer-songwriters and the seminal music that once filled airwaves, roadhouses and juke joints.
Circumstance follows her debut 2019 album Visions and the earlier EP You’ve Been Away So Long, both of which led to being dubbed a rising star in the folk world. Now, she has built on that success, expanding her horizons and continuing along the path that began long ago in Newton, Massachusetts with her absorbing her parents’ eclectic record collection. Produced and arranged by her creative partner, Freebo, a veteran bass player and former Bonnie Raitt band member, Circumstance presents a powerful, poetic collection of heartfelt expression — Alice Howe’s answer to the call that keeps whispering in her ear.