There’s an old-school charm to “Chapel Glass”. The second album from The Glass Hours came out in the US earlier this year on Cornelius Chapel Records, but is now receiving a UK and European release, just like the days of the import albums in Tempest Records, Birmingham, that you so prized in the 1990s.
The duo, Megan Barbera and Brad Armstrong, originally from Colorado and Alabama respectively, met in New York’s Hudson Valley in 2022, and there’s something in that meeting of places and voices that runs right through “Chapel Glass”. Critics have already drawn comparisons with Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and you can hear why.
It doesn’t end there either, because “Adaline”, with its relaxed guitar and the fact it is sung as a duet, with both Barbera and Armstrong delivering the same lines, is utterly timeless.
On “Man Who Had Everything”, the man who had everything can’t quite come to terms with its loss, but the music is beautiful. Made all the more so, actually, by Barbera singing it from the man’s point of view.
It crackles too. Probably because it was recorded live in just five days at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi, with a band that includes Matt Patton of Drive-By Truckers on bass and Jason Lucia on drums. The music – whether the classic country feeling of “North”, as they travel with no real plan, or the fragile “Not Your Ordinary Heart” – always just sounds right.
The latter sees Armstrong take the lead vocal, but the dynamics don’t really change. “Colorado” is as gentle as it is brilliant, and there’s just something so lovely and welcoming about “In The Morning”. Almost, in the case of “Providence”, a familiar feel.
“In The Pines” carries an old-school blues feel, and the musical bedrock is simply perfect.
“You Set The Sun” is 3:13 of sheer class. Completely rooted in its locality, with talk of dogwood trees and so on, yet somehow open to us all.
The title track finishes it all, and the delivery, half-whispered, adds to the intrigue.
You’ve heard this type of thing before, but that really isn’t the point. Rather, the point is the warmth that’s on display.
There’s nothing on “Chapel Glass” that will shatter your calm, and that’s its charm. A genuinely lovely LP.
Rating 8.5/10
