Ruth Lambert (vocals), Giles
Strong (guitar) & Mick Shoulder (double bass)
(Review by Russell)
Three is Ruth Lambert’s third CD release and the first with her
trio of Giles Strong (guitar) and Mick Shoulder (double bass). Twelve tracks
(six original compositions and six
standards) sustain a remarkably high standard of performance. Voice, guitar and bass have been recorded with
painstaking attention to acoustic detail by studio producer Adam Sinclair.
Lambert’s A Love That Never Dies and Strong’s Everything Was Beautiful open the album with a statement of
intent; stripped-back, up-close compositions. Listen with headphones and one
can almost hear the beating hearts such is the intimacy of it all. Love
Me Like a Man is more often heard as a raucous command. Here the acoustic
balance seeks to defy the lyric, resisting the temptation to let rip. Skylark’s will o’ the wisp fragility is
handled with the utmost care; Lambert has a case for claiming the definitive
take on Hoagy Carmichael’s tune with Strong and Shoulder playing the notes, the
right notes, and no more. A Shoulder/Lambert composition – So Tell Me – indicates the potential for more self-penned material
in future. The Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne classic Time After Time closes the album with Lambert’s effortless swinging
vocals.
Three’s production values are second to none, so much so one could
be forgiven for thinking it had been recorded on the legendary Pablo record label. Album credits are
due to Adam Sinclair (engineer, mixer and producer), cover design/artwork by
Mick Shoulder and photography by Zoe Strong. Three is impossibly intimate, impossibly good. Three (RLT1) is available at www.ruthlamberttrio.com.
Russell.
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