H.C. McEntire (from the album Every Acre

H.C. McEntire (from the album Every Acre

H.C. McEntire (from the album Every Acre available on Merge Records) (by Lee Zimmerman)
 
H.C. McEntire brings her music to the fore through a credible and compelling backstory. Both on her own and as the front woman for the band Mount Moriah, she excelled in creating a sound that reflected her rural North Carolina environs and the humble upbringing that left an exacting impression on all the music she’s made over the course of her career.
 
Her new album, Every Acre, is no exception. Gravitating from the spectral ambiance of the 100-year-old farmhouse where she still resides, she honors tradition by sharing the sacred traditions and distinct dialog forever inscribed by the indigenous people on the land they once called home. The album was written and recorded on Native American tribal terrain, and she takes that added impetus to heart. The song “Shadows” makes that point implicitly clear. ‘Leave this place just like you found it, posts of cedar, coils of wire, tangled up inside the briar, Like shadows on the fire’.
 
That hushed reverence lingers throughout the album, making for a set of songs as poignant as it is profound. Emphasis and eloquence work in tandem, making Every Acre all the more affecting in the process. It’s hardly a surprise; her two earlier albums, Eno Axis and Lionheart, as well as her three releases at the helm of Mount Moriah — the band’s eponymous debut, Miracle Temple and How To Dance — effectively gave her the grounding, cool, and confidence that allowed her to find her footing. That’s borne out in songs such as “New View”, “Dovetail”, “Rows of Clover”, and “Gospel of a Certain Kind”, all soothing yet seductive examples of McEntire’s ability to bring conflicting emotions to the surface in a transformative and transfixing way.
 
If anything, Every Acre proves that the loudest voices don’t always create themes vivid impression. McEntire tackles turmoil, uncertainty, grief, and despair, but does so with courage and conviction. It is, in every way, a most illuminating endeavor. (by Lee Zimmerman(
 
 
Listen and buy the music of H.C. McEntire from AMAZON
 
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