NEW CD

Rhythms Review by Tony Hillier

PEARL

Marcia Howard and Rose Bygrave, long-time soul mates and band mates in Shane Howard’s high-riding '80s band Goanna, have teamed up following successful careers as solo singer-songwriters. Pearl, the name of the act as well as the title of their debut album as a duo, features alternating compositions and lead vocals from the principals, with the acoustic guitarist-keyboard players backed by a selective and simpatico group of musicians that includes the renowned guitarist Steve Cooney, multi-instrumentalist Dave Steel and Marcia's brother Damian Howard. Both ladies are blessed with crystalline voices and perfect enunciation and impeccable harmony singing skills, which makes for optimum blending of their voices when they converge.

The more autobiographical songs on Pearl, an album engineered

and produced in the duo's home studios at Queenscliff and

Warrnambool, veer towards sentimentality, but there's a cluster of

tracks at the heart of the set that is truly outstanding. The purple

patch starts with Marce Howard's Latin-flavoured 'Everything

Reminds Me', appropriately delivered by the composer in a wistful

tone with muted trumpet and jazzy electric guitar creating optimum

ambience. Bygrave's spirited singing on her blues-gospel potboiler

'Distant Child', with fiddle and dobro backing, is equally arresting.

Their combined vocals on Howard's poetic 'Two Sisters Dreaming'

are outstanding. Likewise in the sole cover, of Lesley Duncan’s 'Love

Song', that closes the album, with stinging electric guitar entwined.