This is Merchant's homage to folk and traditional music, and as such,
it threatens to suffer under an anthropological earnestness.
However, the sounds are lovely—violins, tentatively plucked banjos—in
a way that wouldn't sound out of place in PBS or NPR special. The
striking thing is Merchant's voice. It no longer has the lithe,
little girl lilt of the past. She sounds older, her voice crackles.
There's a matronly gravitas, and an understated passion, that runs
through her readings of these songs. Highlights include the Fairport
Convention tune "Crazy Man Michael" and the murder ballad, "Diver
Boy."

--Craig L. Gidney