Sweet Dreams of Home - Cozy & Comfortable Home Decor for Bedroom & Living Room | Perfect for Relaxation & Interior Design

Mae Robertson appeared in a folk concert series I'm involved with a while back. She is every bit as warm and engaging in person as her recordings would suggest. She has assembled here something of (what used to be called) a concept album. All the material, as others have noted here, is related to the theme of "home," at least in the broadest sense. Some are well known Baby Boomer standards, including Karla Bonhoff's "Home" and Graham Nash's "Our House." These would pretty much seem to be de rigueur selections. But Robertson and collaborator Eric Garrison have done their homework and come up with lots of less well known--and some quite surprising--numbers. How many acoustic performers would even consider doing a Talking Heads' song. Robertson and Garrison pull off the avant-garde rockers' song beautifully and with only minor textual changes. It's a total recasting of the song, less ironic, more heartfelt. And it works.Eric Garrison provides solid vocal and instrumental support throughout. And Tom Paxton shows up to provide guest vocals on his own composition "Home To Me (Is Anywhere You Are). A treat. And a sign of the kind of respect Mae has earned among the folk cognoscenti.The "home" on a couple of the tracks, Arlo Guthrie's "I'm Going Home" and Dougie McLean's "Until We Meet Again" is more metaphorical. There's nothing new about referring to death as "going home," I suppose, but these songs are still beautiful expressions of a universally held notion. They are no less profound for being a something of a commonplace.Mae's direct approach to her vocals makes for a style both lovely and grounded. She is a no-frills vocalist (refreshing in this day and age). This is really a well done album of well-crafted, intelligent songs. And did I mention "lovely"? Yeah, well, let me re-iterate: it's just lovely.