Devon Sproule | Reviews

fRoots - 4/09

DEVON SPROULE Don't Hurry For Heaven
Tin Angel TAR010

It's a couple of years since Devon Sproule released Keep Your Silver Shined - not her debut album but the first one in which her lovely, original, idiosyncratic blend of old country, folk and pre-war jazz with evocative, engaging lyrics really gelled. It was such a grower: from being charmed enough by it to take it out in the car (not something that often happens with me and US singer-songwriter CDs) and agreeing to do a Root Salad feature since she was in the country, more plays made it a complete favourite and eventually brought about a snap decision to put her on the cover. Watching her then go on to capture the hearts of the nation via an edge-of-seat appearance with hubby Paul Curreri on Later... and a prolonged summer 2008 in the UK where she hit all the big festivals was an immense pleasure, and gave a real feeling of pride that we'd taken that leap of faith so early on.

The title track was already around as a demo when we ran that feature and has been a much-loved staple of her live set since, as have others well honed on the road like Julie and Healthy Parents Happy Couple. Another regular live feature has been the almost telepathic interplay between her and veteran UK pedal steel player B.J. Cole, and Devon has very wisely recorded most of this new album in the UK with him and the rest of her road-tested UK band stalwarts. A couple of extra tracks, including a nice version of Sponji Reggae with the Silver crew (one of two 'covers' on here, all the rest Sproule-penned) were recorded back home. The join isn't obvious.

Just like its predecessor, this one has that warm and natural, relaxed, open sound where everything breezes into its place. Her conversational, sometimes vulnerable vocals with that little catch are as charming as ever: she completely inhabits the songs, the stories they tell and pictures that they paint in a way that's rare. It's a skill that few others have: to say that I'd put this and Silver up there with an all-time classic like the McGarrigles' debut is, I hope, a good compliment.

Sometimes one approaches a follow-up to a real favourite with unease, but there's something about Devon which made me just know this would be alright. Not only alright, but once again a real grower with so much gorgeous detail to uncover on repeat plays. Part of this summer's soundtrack just arrived.

Distributed in the UK by Shellshock.

- Ian Anderson

American Songwriter - 2/09

After the early round of downstairs performances wrapped up, we headed back upstairs to the dorm-nightmare-slumber-party to which we've become accustomed to for late nights at the Folk Alliance. Luckily, Devon Sproule provided some needed shelter from the storm. It really is surreal walking by room after room of musicians playing, people sitting on hotel beds. We can't really describe it. Sproule, a favorite of ours from Charlottesville, VA, previewed some new tunes from the forthcoming Dont Hurry For Heaven, which we hope comes out soon on Andy Friedman's NYC-based City Salvage record label. Sproule's new songs blew us away in almost the same way as seeing Alvin Youngblood Hart manhandle his little Martin guitar. The lyrical depth and movement in the arrangement/melody of Sproule's new songs show she's been doing her homework.

- Davis Inman

C-Ville Weekly - New Year's Eve at the Gravity Lounge - 1/09

There are some parallels, naturally, when comparing the effects of alcohol on one's New Year's Eve to the effects of watching a two-hour set from local folksy-jazz singers. Both leave you feeling warm, relaxed and perhaps, with the former, a little disoriented. But it took a special palette to appreciate the deeper notes of Devon Sproule and Paul Curreri during the pair's New Year's Eve gig at Gravity Lounge.

A family affair: Matt and Paul Curreri look on while Devon Sproule invites 2009 to "Stop By Anytime" on New Year's Eve at Gravity Lounge.

Sproule's voice, like the glass of white wine that sat on the chair next to her during the show's six-song beginning, was sometimes smooth, sometimes pointed, but always delightful. Wearing a black vintage dress, sequined shrug and silver flats that she'd borrowed from a friend (a different look from her usual unfettered, casual garb), Sproule shimmered onstage through three songs from Keep Your Silver Shined, and three others, including "Don't Hurry for Heaven." Watching Sproule sing also meant feeling Sproule sing: Eyes closed, jaw wiggling, she invited the audience to experience, not just hear, her lyrics along with her.

It was the introduction of Curreri, though, that got the show off to its real start. The pair played Sproule's "Stop By Anytime" before she exited and Curreri began his own solo set. Where Sproule was delicate and soft, Curreri (like his glass of red) was confident and gruff. His smile, beneath a scruffy mustache, was boyish with a glimmer of mischief. His voice, louder than Sproule's, held its notes and then teasingly backed away. His banter-"How was your year? I hope it was good. Mine was good. ...Still rich. Been keeping it under the bed. ...I was right all along"-was all charm and flirtation.

Eventually the two met onstage again to play five songs together, including a very sexy cover from reggae band Black Uhuru ("Sponji Reggae"). In fact, watching the two of them onstage felt a bit like crashing their private party instead of letting them kick-start ours. And when Curreri's younger brother Matt joined the couple for two songs and their Devon-heavy encore (the boys played bongos and tambourine while Sproule sang because, as Curreri said, they didn't have much to do with the song until the end), the effect on the show was curiously like the mystery liquid (Champagne? White wine?) in the small bottle he carried onstage: a welcome, refreshing surprise.

The audience could have listened to them all night. And, had there been the time, they probably would have let us. Maybe they didn't even know we were there.

- Caite White

Sydney Herald (Aus) Reviews Upstate Songs - 11/08

Virginian Devon Sproule sings her old-style stories (they speak of birds and beds and hips and mantles) in such a conversational, utterly charming manner that you can listen for a long time before waking up to the fact that here is a lovely voice. This re-issued album may be less eclectic than her more recent work but 'Upstate Songs' often feels like the best kind of late afternoon mood-setting, warm strum-and-smile folk music that has an ear for jazz.

Bernard Zuel SMH

HiFi News - 09/08

Album of the Year

When I reviewed Keep Your Silver Shined back in June, I didn't really expect it to become my constant companion, but it has. Compared to tmore cerebral singer-songwriter faves of mine like Laura Veirs and Maria Taylor, Sproule is more conventionally rooted in jazz, country and blues. But, dammit, she has the best tunes and the most engaging voice. I caught her live show at St. Bonaventures in Bristol and, although she was effectively rehearsing the band, it remains etched in my memory as one of the most enjoyable live gigs I've seen. Watch this girl soar.

- JB

The Guardian (UK) - 02/08

It is often said that Devon Sproule's musical tales of her Virginia hometown render the place so sweet the tourist board should offer her a job. While there has been a change of focus since 2003's much-praised Upstate Songs, with Sproule having tied the knot with musician Paul Curreri, the resulting diary of their courtship provides a similar service for marriage. Keep Your Silver Shined, with its dreamy songs of rural domestic bliss, could rejuvenate even the most resolute singleton's faith in married life.

But as sweet as they are, loved-up couples can run the risk of getting tiresome. Here, as she tours with her husband, there is the worry that the playfulness of Sproule's music would be lost under a sugary coating of his'n'hers balladry. Thankfully, Curreri's finely crafted gruffness complements her well. Delivering much of her set solo on her trademark oversized vintage Gibson, an instrument "as old as my dad", Sproule gently slips between old and new material.

Dedicating the excellent Don't Hurry for Heaven to her "recovering Catholic" husband, her smoky voice grows in stature as she gathers momentum. While Sproule has been recording since her teens, the songs from Keep Your Silver Shined, when performed live, justify her claim that it is her best effort so far. At points during the hazy Americana of the title track, it seems less like a concert and more an intimate showcase on her own front porch, and when Curreri comes back on stage to duet on the last few numbers, the pair bring out an unlikely but inspired cover of reggae band Black Uhuru. It all makes for a thoroughly pleasant show; married life appears to have worked out just fine for the Sproules.

At Crawdaddy, Dublin, tomorrow. Box office: 0353 1 6624305. Then touring.

- Miles Johnson

The List (UK) - 02/08

Beguiling singer and storyteller Devon Sproule�s songs are so evocative they could be used as adverts for her home town. Rachel Devine gets in a state

If the Virginia tourist board ever needs an advertising jingle to sell their leafy state, they could do worse than ask Devon Sproule to pen them a song. Sproule�s latest album, Keep Your Silver Shined, is the sound of Virginia condensed into ten songs. It is balmy nights on the back porch and languorous walks through the Blue Ridge Mountains. It�s ye olde America from a fresh perspective for a new generation.

�The thing that tickles me most about people who like the album in the UK is that they always say something about how it makes them want to move to Virginia,� says Sproule, in her treacle drawl. �People tell me it sounds pretty nice in Virginia and that perhaps they might like to sit on a porch there. It�s so far away from the way y�alls life is so I guess it feels homey but exotic at the same time.�

Keep Your Silver Shined is Sproule�s fourth album but when she talks about how it was made it becomes clear that she sees it as the start of her musical journey. �It�s way better and best,� she says with a titter of self-satisfaction. It was written during the most important love affair of her life, her engagement and marriage to her husband Paul Curreri, who will share the bill with Sproule on a tour of Europe this month, including dates in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

�I guess it�s natural that bits of my life make it into my songs,� says Sproule (the artwork of the album is made up of her wedding photos). �But it also came about as a result of me discovering genres of music that I felt comfortable with and that suited the feel of the record. I didn�t feel limited to playing music that�s indigenous to Virginia or anything.�

Born in Canada and brought up in a commune in the Virginian countryside, Sproule started playing guitar from an early age and was already performing by 15, singing cover versions of Liz Phair songs at open mic sessions in and around her home town of Charlottesville. Her particular brand of Americana occupies a space balanced with the feisty folk charms of Joni Mitchell and the jazz and swing sounds of the 1930s and 40s. It�s sunny and optimistic but tinged with gentle pathos. Dressed in her 1940s dresses, with an oversized vintage Gibson slung around her neck, she wouldn�t look out of place in the Carter Family.

But touring with her husband, with whom she works closely in and out of the studio, has its drawbacks. �We do like being apart because it keeps things special � but I suppose being away from Virginia keeps things special too.�

While they are missing a traditional Valentine�s Day duet concert they play every year in Charlottesville, the pair will finish every night with a few romantic duets. Sproule is reluctant to reveal the set list but admits one is by reggae band Black Uhuru.

�You don�t want to do it in a Jamaican accent but you also don�t want to be too white about,� says Sproule with a nervous laugh. �It�s just a really cool song. People can make up their own minds when they hear it.�

If it makes them want to move to Jamaica then Sproule really does have the magic touch.

- Rachel Devine

HMV - 01/08

She's surely playing tricks on us. Virginia native Devon Sproule swears she's still only 24 and yet already she's onto album number four, while the confidence and conviction with which she executes Keep Your Silver Shined surely can't be possessed by someone of such tender years.

There are plenty of more tricks up Devon's sleeve. Her sprightlier numbers recall Captain Swing-era Michelle Shocked, while the more reflective moments will appeal to those with an existing affection for Jolie Holland or The Be Good Tanyas. There's even a sniff of Tom Waits about 1340 Chesapeake St. But despite the contemporary reference points, it's ageless stuff that doesn't conspicuously wear 21st-century clothing � country/bluegrass/folk/swing that could have emerged from any point from the last 60 years or so.

An album of sheer beauty and delight, we dare anyone to remain unaffected by the simply gorgeous title track, underscored as it is by some heart-melting pedal steel. Just outstanding.

Acoustic Guitar - 01/08

As a young singer/guitarist growing up in the Virginia commune Twin Oaks, Devon Sproule says she was almost expected to write songs. �You�re in a creative environment, everyone loves you and supports you,� she says. �But it wasn�t the healthiest way to come into songwriting, because I felt like I should be writing, which is a weird situation to be in when you�re 15 and you have no clue who you are.� If it wasn�t the best way to start, it certainly didn�t hurt Sproule�s ability to write, as the jazzy, literate, richly detailed songs on the 25-year-old�s new CD Keep Your Silver Shined (City Salvage/Waterbug) amply demonstrate. Sproule has integrated a love of jazz and its probing harmonic language with her nuanced fingerpicking and a poet/storyteller�s ability to paint colorful sketches of the world she and her friends inhabit in Charlottesville, Virginia. This mix creates a sound that conjures a sort of downhome, beatnik, guitar-playing Norah Jones

Sproule took up guitar at 14 and was soon taking lessons and learning songs from a teacher in Charlottesville. �He just taught me songs that he knew,� she says. �He had a little bit of swing/jazz stuff, so I got to learn a few �non-nut� chords.� Sproule�s musical precocity led to a performing career when she was still relatively young. �I played small gigs when I was 16 and bigger and bigger gigs the later half of my teenage years,� she says. �It became tricky not just because I was self-conscious and didn�t have much practice [at performing], but because I was also being a teenager. I would say to my boyfriends, �Music will always be my priority and you have to know that,� [laughs] but really it was the other way around. I was getting better at having boyfriends faster than I was getting better at writing songs, which was probably a fine thing to be doing at that age. So it was nice to settle down in my early twenties and actually start becoming comfortable with my songwriting process. It is still pretty slow; I�m not superprolific, but I�ve come to terms with that.�

If Sproule is not prolific, that may be because her songs are carefully crafted, with unusual, leaping chord progressions and an abhorrence of lyrical clich�s. For example, �Keep Your Silver Shined� begins simply enough with a I�V�IV�I progression in F? that abruptly (but musically) moves to a B?/D chord at the end of each verse line. After four repetitions of that progression, the B?/D lets Sproule modulate neatly into E for the soaring (I�vi�IV�V) chorus.

Sproule often begins her process by �ripping off some chords� from a song she�s learned. �Of course, you have to learn interesting songs if you�re going to do that,� she says. �Simpler jazzy songs like Fats Waller and Hoagy Carmichael songs, or bossa nova songs; they have interesting chords. I took these nice chords from an Antonio Carlos Jobim song, �A Felicidade,� for �Stop By Anytime��not all of them, of course.� Then comes the process of wedding a melody to harmony. �If I think about it, I can figure out what kind of chord I�m playing, but I only turn on the theory when I�m trying to figure out something that needs to be figured out, as opposed to letting it dictate what chords I write,� she says. �It makes melody writing more fun, because in order for all these chords to not sound sonically confusing next to each other, the melody has to glue them together.�

Lyrically, Sproule says that she�s �started writing more around refrains, coming up with a one- or two-sentence refrain for a song,� as in �Let�s Go Out� and �Stop By Anytime,� which are Sproule�s most obvious additions to the Great American Songbook. In a different approach, Sproule describes �Does the Day Feel Long?� as �experimenting with a refrain that comes in not at the end of each verse or the beginning of each chorus but that just pokes its head up once in a while.�

Sproule�s previous album, Upstate Songs, was spare and pristine, spotlighting the singer-songwriter and her guitar, but the new album finds Sproule fronting a small band, with a sympathetic rhythm section; occasional fiddle, mandolin, pedal steel, clarinet, electric guitar, or accordion colors; and a live, spontaneous sound. �We recorded it in [producer] Jeff Romano�s living room, which felt perfect for these songs,� Sproule says. �It was full of light, full of house plants. We did my tracks first and then we would hear about a great clarinet guy over in Richmond, and we would think, �Clarinet, that would work great for these songs.� And then the clarinetist [John Winn] would come and he would say �Oh, you should talk to this guy [Matty Metcalfe], who plays the accordion.� Not everything worked, but it was fun to do it that way. And I had a lot of friends stop in and play.�

Though her songs are the product of some serious musical crafting, Sproule doesn�t have a regular writing routine, preferring to wait until she�s ready for the next song to emerge. �When I haven�t been writing for so long that it�s driving me crazy, then I usually have enough material to write another song,� she says. �Songwriting is my favorite thing to do; it makes my brain feel the best, and it makes me feel the best about my life, but I also feel really fortunate to be doing this as a job. That�s what motivates me to write: because it�s my job and I love it.� FIND NEW MELODIES IN THE CHORDS

To create new melodies, Devon Sproule often takes apart chords to find the notes that will work best with them. �I start singing over the chords and usually what I sing is really clich� and boring,� she says, �so I take the bare structure of that melody and use my fingers to play all the notes in and around each chord. And that reminds my voice of the notes I�ve forgotten. Sometimes those notes are hard to convince your muscles to sing, and that�s really fun�to write a melody that you forget every time you try to sing it because your voice isn�t used to jumping to those notes. But I like to try to push it and see if I can get it to a place where it�s comfortable. Then it becomes an interesting melody.� DEVON SPROULE'S EQUIPMENT PICKS

*

Guitar: 1954 Gibson ES-125 archtop. �It�s just the warmest sound,� she says. �I�m surprised more women don�t do this, because it really complements the female voice.�

Strings: D�Addario medium-gauge flatwounds.

Amp: Fender Champ 600.

Dirty Linen - 10/07

On her fourth CD Virginia singer/songwriter Devon Sproule manages to sound both very contemporary and retro, venturing down old-time jazz, country, and moutain pathways. Sproule's vocals blend a delightfully contrary sense of phrasing with an authentic, if understated, Appalachian twang. Her sense of humor emerges on the slow, jazzy "Let's Go Out," while pieces like the title tune and "Does the Day Feel Long" are vivid photographic slices of rural Americana. Working with a small, low-key studio band, Sproule generates and amiable, laid-back groove throughout the disc, which concludes with Mary Chapin Carpenter on the traditional tune "The Weeping Willow." (MP)

Sing Out! - 10/07

This is not someone raised in front of a television blaring Gilligan's Island re-runs -- she grew up on a commune in the mountains of Virginia, and it shows in her refreshing jazz/folk originals (and two covers). She's just 25 but there's a hint of Gillian Welch here, of a maturity beyond her years but still with a playfulness to keep it all aloft. She wrote most of the songs in a stream-of-consciousness style featuring vivid descriptions and surrounded by sharp arrangements (thanks to producer Jeff Romano) -- from the smart aleck fiddle in the swing number "Old Virginia Blcok" to the wheezy accordion in "1340 Chesapeake Street." The title cut is a wistful ode to everyday life, including "A dresser drawer to put my pants in / What, oh, what more could a woman want?" The weary "Let's Go Out" has a cool dimly lit late night bar feel with it's lightly brushed snare and jazzy guitar. The disc ends beatuifully with the traditional "The Weeping Willow" featuring a vocal by Mary Chapin Carpenter. (JA)

The Observer (UK) - 10/07

There's a refreshing sweetness about the work of this 24-year-old American songwriter -- there in her mellifluous vocals and poetic, freewheeling lyrics that, in the way of Bjork and Joanna Newsom, are more blank verse than rhyming schemes. Sproule's songs ooze the atmosphere of balmy Virginia days - she grew up in a commune in the state - and her sunny outlook is infectious. She even has a song called 'Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest'. This second album extends her musical reach into swing and country flavours, clarinet and pedal-steel accompaniments; even some erratic production doesn't dent Sproule's youthful charm."

- Neil Spencer

Performing Songwriter - 07/07

Are your ears pining for an old-time edition of The Grand Ole Opry or a Carter Family concert? Well, stop longing and start dancing to the music of Devon Sproule. The Virginia native delivers vintage mountain music with a modern twist...

- Mare Wakefield

Womenfolk - 07/07

It�s been years since Devon Sproule first charmed Charlottesville, VA with her intricate songwriting and stunning vocal style. Ms. Sproule�s music evokes a pastoral America full of sublime views and cozy vignettes. At the age of 25, she has mastered the art of lifting surfaces to momentarily reveal a lazy afternoon or a sun-flecked stream.

Keep Your Silver Shined, released on City Salvage Records, is produced by Charlottesville musician and producer Jeff Romano, and performed by an impressive array of talent. Gorgeous clarinet solos from John Winn, pedal steel from Charlie Bell, and accordion from Matty Metcalfe provide a quirky, vintage cast of characters that set the mood. The most influential collaborator on the record is Paul Curreri, not in the least because of his musical contributions, but more importantly as the presumed inspiration for the album. Sproule and Curreri were married in 2005, and shades of their wedding and relationship saturate the album from start to finish. It�s rare for pure domestic bliss to form the foundation - no, the centerpiece - of a record. Ms. Sproule�s lyrics and performance have such a commanding presence, one can�t help but wish herself alongside, singing to the Blue Ridge and the setting sun.

If, like this writer, you happen to have had the chance to live in Charlottesville, the imagery on the album feels like parts of your own memory being sung back to you, between shout-outs to local bars and brews, and visions of the Virginia landscape. If you have not had the pleasure, it�s no matter. Devon Sproule�s singular cadence and practiced improvisational style conjure up a world that will take you in just as if you were born and raised in Albemarle County.

    I�ve got family in Canada, family in New York
    I�ve got friends in every other place I�ve played
    But I can�t keep from planting all my plans of family stuff
    Down between the weeds in the red dirt clay
                  - "Old Virginia Block"

Beginning with �Old Virginia Block,� a cacophony of old-fashioned country, we are immediately confronted with characteristically unhinged rhythms and melodies. There is a looseness in Ms. Sproule�s execution that is deceptively lighthearted. In this song and throughout, what starts as a simple foot-tapper or a calm daydream usually ends with a burst of adrenaline, a twinge of anxiety, or sheer joy. Even with sparse arrangements and a distinctly playful tone, the songs consistently surprise with passion and intensity.

The record�s best track is easily �1340 Chesapeake St,� highlighting Devon�s run-on-sentence brilliance, always leaving you wondering how she finds time to breathe. Listening to these lyrics is like watching dust floating in a ray of sunlight - her words ramble, never settling on one note or syllable, and they don�t ever seem as though they are susceptible to gravity.

�Does The Day Feel Long?� has the same rambling quality. Laced with powerful sailboat imagery (�So you say, �Hey, can you hear me? My land, come near me! My love, my song, don�t leave me alone!��), it�s like that dream that made sense last night, though you can never remember when you wake in the morning.

Prevailing jazz vocals give way to the folk which came before on �Weeping Willow.� All the stops are pulled out of this traditional gem - Romano on bass harmonica, and three-part harmony with husband Curreri and the legendary Mary Chapin-Carpenter, another Albemarle County resident.

Keep Your Silver Shined is truly an ensemble achievement. The sheer loveliness of the melodies and lyrics is so perfectly matched to the space between instruments and understated arrangements. The record creates a place that will soothe and inspire all who enter. With Devon at the helm of this ship, we can be sure that its winds will continue to be strong and its travels many.

Paste - 06/07

I don�t know if this is the best album I�ve heard this year. It�s close. It�s easily the most joyous. Devon Sproule�s music meets at the intersection of folk, country, and jazz; clarinets colliding with pedal steel, old-time country songs that sound like they could come from The Carter Family subverted by some Django Reinhardt gypsy guitar work. Sproule�s songs are something to behold: Victoria Williams� playfulness and spunk meeting up with Joni Mitchell�s confessional songwriting chops. To top it off, this is the sexiest, sultriest southern album since Lucinda�s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

- Andy Whitman

Boston Herald - 05/07

Virginia �s Devon Sproule makes a jazzy folk that doesn�t sound like any other singer-songwriter music of her generation. It�s both down-home and uptown, a delicate, Appalachian stringed-swing.

Vocally, comparisons to Rickie Lee Jones might come to mind. But Sproule�s message and image could not be more opposite than 1970s down �n out hipster cool. Sproule, 25, celebrates the quiet joys of community, the love of home, and the warmth of friendship and marriage in her new album, �Keep Your Silver Shined.�

Though the songs seem made with care, a light, dancing spirit of improvisation also visits her sound. Thoughts come in felicitous bursts, her fun, honest lyrics combining homey details with playful impressions.

- Dan Gewertz

Eugene KBOO DJ Jeff Rosenberg (for the Willamette Weekly) - 05/07

Originally from Virginia, Devon Sproule relocated to upstate New York for her acclaimed third album, Upstate Songs, in 2003. This year's winning follow-up, Keep Your Silver Shined, finds her back in the South, happily in love and accompanied by a swinging clarinet. Her lyrics free-associate and confound song structure in a manner similar to Joanna Newsom's, though her subjects are more down-to-earth and her voice goes down more smoothly. To channel Paula, I fricking love her!

- Jeff Rosenberg

Eugene Weekly - 05/07

The Next Norah?

Remember how the entire world seemed to go batshit for Norah Jones? Though it wasn't unjustified, it was somewhat surprising; of all the sweet-voiced singer-songwriters in the nation, why this one?

Were there any justice in the world, the next recipient of this sort of nationwide adoration would be 25-year-old Devon Sproule, whose recent album Keep Your Silver Shined has little in common with Jones other than a sort of universal appeal, a gentle earthiness that deepens her delicate, crystal-clear songs as they veer between folk, county, "Americana," pop and something classic and timeless.

Sproule's voice is a thing of sweet clarity, staking out its own space in ground explored by singers from Joni Mitchell to Gillian Welch to Jenny Lewis. Her lyrics paint gorgeous scenes, her backing band marches to an impeccable beat and something glowing underlines all her tunes. "Keep Your Silver Shined" is particularly irresistable, especially when Sproule lists the things she desires: "A claw foot tub and a shiny car / Piles of fruit and a fully stocked bar / Money for a flight out west / Cute shoes and a vintage dress." Yeah? Me too, honey.

Some of Sproule's songs are spare, throatily sung and emotional while others are cheery and lilting, but either way, there's something that sets her apart: Where many singer-songwriters seem driven by an internal darkness, an indescribable sadness, Sproule seems bright, happy, gleeful without being horribly chipper. It's a difficult thing to describe, this openheartedness that strings her songs together, but it's not offputting even to the jaded cynics in the audience (who, me?). I can't wait to see how this sunshine translates live.

Devon Sproule plays with Kids on the Couch at 9 pm Wednesday, May 30, at Sam Bond's Garage.

- Molly Templeton

Eugene Register Guard - 05/07
Sproule's easy sound belies the soulfulness of her work

For the past several months a much younger colleague, who follows pop music closely for the newspaper, has been trying to figure out whether she and I might have any musical common ground. The result has been a steady flow of CDs back and forth between our desks, sometimes with yellow Sticky Notes noting a track number or two to try out. Until recently, all we'd discovered is that I can't quite tell apart many of the alternative female singer-songwriters of which she is fond, and that she isn't as big a fan of Southern hillbilly music or of Edith Piaf as I am.

Then we found something to agree on - and her name is Devon Sproule.

Sproule, who plays at Sam Bond's on Wednesday, has certainly got the right demographics to appeal to both of us. Born in Canada but reared and still living in Virginia, Sproule honors her bluegrass roots with everything from the slight twang in her voice to the straight-ahead rendition of "The Weeping Willow" that concludes her fourth album, "Keep Your Silver Shined." On the other hand, Sproule is 25, definitely part of the My-Space generation. And she flavors that mild twanginess in her music with instruments as varied as clarinet and accordion.

On top of it all, she has a voice that no one deserves at such a tender age. It's a confident, understated alto that seems to be enjoying a quiet one-on-one conversation with you - except that the conversation happens to take place through carefully crafted lyrics.

That all-ages appeal hasn't escaped her notice. "I just feel proud of the fact that I can play a concert for a mostly 40-plus audience and then go play a college, where these kids want to give me their CDs and they want to go out looking for booze after the show," she said in a phone interview from her home. "I really enjoy music made by all ages of people."

Life on a "hippie commune"

Sproule's childhood may have helped free her from artistic pigeonholes. She grew up on what she usually refers to as a "465-acre hippie commune" in Virginia. It takes me a moment to realize that she must mean Twin Oaks, the utopian commune founded 40 years ago on the principles of "Walden Two," Harvard behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner's seminal book.

As it happens, I visited Twin Oaks once, some years before Sproule was born, and still have pleasant memories of working in the hammock shop there. Despite Skinner's undeserved reputation as an emotionally cold technician, the commune, which has drifted away from Skinner's ideas anyway, remains one of the \longest-running secular communes in existence in the United States.

Sproule doesn't usually bring up Twin Oaks by name, because the place is so fascinating that it easily could derail an entire interview. This story is about her music, right?

She confesses, though, to slipping a couple of sly references to Twin Oaks into the song lyrics on her new CD, including "a veil and a bucket by a pair of oak trees" in "Old Virginia Block," and "All my thinking back has been/ Strung up between two tall trees" (OK, picture those hammocks) in "Does the Day Feel Long."

Sproule says she was very happy at Twin Oaks, where children like her had many more supportive adults in their lives than just their two parents. "Which ties into being pretty comfortable being creative," she said. "There was nothing even remotely discouraging at Twin Oaks."

Sproule's lyrics, like her voice, are superficially easy but carry terrific authority. Without ever sounding hokey, she piles on crisp rural images with the easy grace of a 20-something Robert Frost. "Keep Your Silver Shined," the title song on her CD, might be a 21st century "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening":

/b>"We got the last of the apples/ Rosy just from the weather/ An orchard map spread out green and red ..." the song begins. But it deftly turns into a reflection on decisions forced on us by maturity. "The season changed, the best of us changed/ The rest of us stuck behind to keep our silver shined," she sings first, with just a hitch of disapproval for those silver polishers. But by song's end, it's the singer herself who wants "to wait and take my time/All my time, to keep my silver shined."

"I actually did come into a set of silver silverware," Sproule said. "That got me going on the idea. I was getting engaged right about the time I was polishing this silver up, and I - well, that was the song I was writing."

Sproule is indeed a fan of poetry, and she works as hard as any writer to polish her lyrics until they appear effortless. "For Devon, who labors over lines just like EB did," says the inscription in a book of Elizabeth Bishop poetry given to her by her sister-in-law.

"I really like the way words sound, a lot," Sproule said. "Where the hard work is, is finding a way to say it all that is poetic and fun."

"Strange, but in a good way"

My colleague, Serena Markstrom, and I are certainly not the only people to sit up and take notice of Sproule's vivid music.

"Perhaps the sweetest and most honest folk-pop album recorded this year," Rolling Stone said of her 2003 release, "Upstate Songs." In 2001, the New Yorker glommed on to Sproule's "noteworthy guitar chops and ... undeniably soulful vocal sensibility." She's even attracted attention from public radio's "This American Life," which said her new album "rings with a sweet, heartbreaking majesty."

But my favorite blurb about her - I wish I had written it myself - might be this, from the Richmond Music News in 1999, the year she turned 17: "Devon Sproule is strange, but in a good way," the reviewer said. "To see someone so deep and so young is scary."

Sproule married singer and guitar player Paul Curreri in 2005. She sings one of his songs, "Eloise & Alex," in a duet with him on the new album. Theirs is a marriage of yin and yang. Curreri, she says, is a "dude" with wide musical tastes. He has been a strong influence on her own music. (He also put out an album, "Songs for Devon Sproule," in 2003. What girl wouldn't swoon?)

Sproule would like him to clean up his dudelike lifestyle - even wrote a humorous song "Don't Hurry for Heaven" to nudge him a bit - but she envies Curreri his "dudeness." "It takes me a long time to write songs," she said. "And it takes me a long time to get better at things.

"I think that is because I lead a pretty balanced life. I am crazy about my house plants. I am crazy about my sister-in-law. I like to get exercise. I can't help but do that stuff. And he can't help but play guitar for three hours a day, or more. It's the whole dude thing. I just want to be more single-minded about music sometimes."

San Diego CityBeat - 05/07

Devon Sproule's another gem from NYC's City Salvage Records (also home to her talented hubby, Paul Curreri). The sassy, 25 year-old folk singer makes 2007 swing like 1937. Her brother-in-law's band, The Exfriends, opens. MS/devonsproule, MS/theexfriends.

New Yorker - 05/07

The nimble singer-guitarist Devon Sproule chronicles her ongoing love affairs with humanity, nature, and the state of Virginia. She performs with a sweet, round diction that shines through even her most ornate imagery and rambunctious melodies.

Gene Shay, WXPN DJ and Philadelphia Folk Festival founder - 05/07

"Devon Sproule is of the best songwriters in the business today."

Maverick Magazine - 04/07

Gorgeous laid-back Southern-tinged music

On this 2nd UK release, twenty-four-year-old Devon Sproule has fully absorbed the laid-back vibe of the rural south. Blending rock, jazz, country and folk sensibilities, her songs boast infectious melodies while conveying portaiture lyricism. This album is teeming with unforgettable imagery that bares Devon's sensitive soul and shows her artistic coming-of-age.

The dream, country-jazz tinged "Does The Day Feel Long" suggests a back-porch swing as twilight is bidding. The song features John Winn on clarinet behind Devon's free-flowing vocal. Equally appealing is the low-key "The Well-Dressed Son to His Sweetheart." This lovely minor-key tune is a small masterpiece of alt.country. Her voice is pretty, but, like Deana Carter's or Caitlin Cary's, plainspoken to the point of discomfort - a sweetly disturbing sensation for the listener. Without remarkable strength or tone, it penetrates deep into the psyche. One almost feels one has been delivered the succinct lyrics telepathically instead of aurally.

Though songs like "Old Virginia Block" and "Eloise & Alex" have subtle jazz swing vibe, the lyrics are strictly down-home. She gets right down to her country roots with a stunning hillbilly rendition of "The Weeping Willow." Not only is her vocal delivery a shocking display of 'superior pipes,' but her musical ability is based around melancholy chords and tight musicianship. Very highly recommended for lovers of good songwriting and seriously sexy (or sexily serious) voices.

Philadelphia Inquirer - 04/07

On Keep Your Silver Shined, Devon Sproule sounds like a more carefree, less deathly serious Gillian Welch or a caffeinated Jolie Holland. Recorded in Charlottesville, Va., where she lives with Paul Curreri, her blues-songwriter husband, Silver digs into Appalachian folk and country sounds, but with a swinging old-time jazz sensibility (that's a clarinet tooting in the background) and a neighborly mixture of innocence and experience. It's the 24-year-old Canadian native's fourth album, and songs like the deceptively ambitious "Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest," mark it as one of the most fetching roots records to come down the pike in quite some time.

- Dan DeLuca

All Music Guide - 04/07

Devon Sproule
Keep Your Silver Shined

Devon Sproule's vintage dresses suggest a Gillian Welch acolyte worshipping at the shrine of the Carter Family. But if the 25-year-old singer/songwriter isn't exactly averse to playing that sepia-tinged trump card (witness the traditional "The Weeping Willow"), she's far too adventurous to settle for easy comparisons.

That restless, eclectic spirit is what transforms Keep Your Silver Shined into the best album of the young artist's already noteworthy career. Sproule served notice with 2003's Upstate Songs: she is an enormously gifted singer and songwriter, spinning out songs full of finely realized details, and singing with unrestrained playfulness and glee. If anything, Keep Your Silver Shined ups the ante. The spare accompaniment of the previous album is replaced here by a full if idiosyncratic band consisting of upright bass, acoustic and electric guitars, pedal steel, brushed drums, and clarinet.

Sproule's formerly pensive coming-of-age songs give way on this album to joyful, woozy celebrations of love, as song after song chronicles her recent courtship and marriage to folk artist Paul Curreri. And the New York of Upstate Songs is here replaced by a distinctly Southern setting, as Sproule returns to her native Virginia. Her considerable charms are best exhibited on the album's centerpiece, the marvelously languid "Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest." Behind an atmospheric country-noir accompaniment that gives her plenty of room to stretch out vocally, Sproule conjures images of a lazy summer evening in the South, a lingering conversation over rum-ginger zingers, the slow, languorous turning from friendship to something more than friendship. It's a perfectly realized moment, augmented by singing that is equal parts Joni Mitchell folk confessional and Victoria Williams looseness and sweet playfulness.

And it's emblematic of the album as a whole. Sproule revels in her new life, taking inventory of a hundred minor joys on the title track, turning the cabin fever lament of "Let's Go Out" into what ought to be a new jazz standard, complete with swinging Benny Goodman clarinet solo, and transforming "Old Virginia Block" into a celebratory bluegrass stomp. It's a marvelous collection of songs and, frankly, it evokes a sense of place better than any album since Lucinda Williams' 1999 masterpiece Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

Yes, alt-country and singer/songwriter fans, it's that good. Much has been made of Devon Sproule's youth and precocious gifts, but this kind of musical wine is rare in any vintage: sweetness and wisdom, memorable words and melodies that hallow the simplest acts of life. "Let the humidity curl your hair/And the mulberries stain your toes'," Sproule sings in "Stop By Anytime." With an album this warm and inviting, you'll gladly take her up on the offer.

- Andy Whitman

The Journal Gazette - 04/07

It has become a clich� to describe a person like Devon Sproule as �an old soul.�

When kindergarten-age actors who are able to commit sitcom scripts to memory are described as �old souls,� it�s hard to know what that phrase even means. In folk singer Sproule�s case, it means a person who had an unusual upbringing, who has grown into an atypically perceptive and intelligent 25-year-old, and whose sound is a mix of old-time country and Parisian jazz that is as magical as it is improbable.

Sproule grew up in a rural Virginian commune called the Twin Oaks Community.

�It�s non-religious,� she says via phone. �Twin Oaks is all about giving people another way of living that is not money-centered. All decisions are consensus based.�

Sproule�s parents were both musical. She still has a tape of herself at five-years-old, singing rounds with her dad.

�I listened to it not too long ago and I thought, �Hey that�s pretty good for a 5-year-old.� At the end of each song, there's a split second pause, then me saying, �Now let�s listen to it.� My husband teases me now, whenever I say that in the studio.�

Asked when she decided to make music her career, Sproule says the question really makes no sense in a commune context.

�Twin Oaks is just not very career-centered,� she says. �It didn't come up nearly as much as it does for most kids. People move to Twin Oaks to explore a variety of different work areas, not to focus on one certain career field.

Sproule recorded her first album when she was 16 and toured off and on, always making her way back to her home state of Virginia.

Sproule says it was hard at first to adjust to life outside a commune.

�I felt comfortable sharing things with people, but almost to a fault,� she says. �I�d borrow girlfriends� clothes, and promptly trash or lose them. I didn't fully appreciate other people�s material items, or how hard they worked to get them.�

It was in Charlottesville, during a performance, that she had an unusual first meeting with her future husband, musician Paul Curreri.

�That last song I did was this Johnny Cash song, �I Still Miss Someone,�� she recalls. �A verse into it, this dude climbs on stage. He�s got a moustache, and he�s a little drunk. He said, �I know this song and I�m going to sing it with you.� I was like, �Oh God.� But I let him sing on the choruses, and it went OK.�

The two became friends but did not date right away. Part of the impediment was a little professional jealousy, Sproule admits.

�He was way more in touch with his own musicality than I was,� she says. �He was a better writer than I. And he had a better relationship with his creativity.

�I told him he wasn't my type, but what I should have said was, "I need to practice my guitar a little more before I�m wife material for you.��

Sproule moved to Woodstock, N.Y., and made her album, �Upstate Songs.�

�I look back at the letters Paul and I exchanged while I was Upstate," she says, "and though they were not love letters, almost all of them said �I love you� at the end. It was just kindred spirits 'n shit."

Curreri came up to visit during the recording of �Upstate Songs� and ended up co-producing the record with Sproule. Three years later, back in Virginia, the pair were married.

Though they now tour separately, the time apart doesn't seem to bother them.

�It�s good for our relationship,� she says. �Keeps things fresh, y'know?"

Sproule herself has a hard time coming up with a good genre title for her sound. But her brother-in-law Matt Curreri (of Matt Curreri & The Exfriends,listed in both Paul and Devon's most recent liner notes as their 'favorite band in the world' has playfully dubbed it �hot wifey back porch jazz.�

Sproule�s upbringing makes it unusually easy for her to survive on a musician�s meager salary. But she doesn�t want to be known as thrifty, necessarily.

�I had this conversation with my sister-in-law the other day. She�s a very �live lightly on the land� lady, and so am I. I eat tofu. I don�t flush the toilet every time,� she says, laughing.

�But I also just spent $60 on natural makeup my girlfriend told me about: �It�s so natural, you can sleep in it!� the packaging says, but I say, 'It's so natural, it's invisible!'"

Sproule�s whole life seems to be an impeccably performed balancing act.

�My career is modest enough that�s I'm still involved in most aspects of it, so I get excited when things go well,� she says. �And music aside, I couldn't be more happy at home, being married to Paul, and y'know, keepin' on..."

- Steve Penhollow

The Late Greats - 04/07

Sunday Album Review ~
Devon Sproule: Keep Your Silver Shined

I have to give a big shout out to Michaela O'Brien for hooking me up with an early copy of this album for review. Let�s just say she made my April.

The ten tracks that make up this album are anything but typical. iTunes calls it �Country�. Some might call it folk. Others, old-timey. The songs vary from a jug-band whoop-whoop (�Old Virginia Block�) to a jazzy two-step (Let�s Go Out) to the more traditional traditional (�The Weeping Willow�, where Mary Chapin Carpenter helps out on vocals).

Even though the songs are originals (expect the aforementioned traditional), they sound like classics. The lyrics and melodies are recognizable but still sound fresh. The instrumentation is wide-ranging (gotta love an album that doesn�t shy away from the accordion or clarinet).

My only complaint: it�s just under 35 minutes. Let�s hope she doesn�t wait another four years before releasing a new album.

If you�re a fan of good songs played with heart and sung with passion, give Devon a listen.

Davy Rothbart - This American Life (NPR) - 04/07

Devon Sproule is a revelation. Keep Your Silver Shined rings with a sweet, heartbreaking majesty; these songs are beautiful, timeless and transporting.

-Davy Rothbart, This American Life

fRoots (UK) - 04/07

Keep Your Silver Shined
Tin Angel Records/City Salvage Records TAR001/CSR10

It�s dangerous to invoke Joni Mitchell, but on first hearing this record an image sprang to mind of her sitting on a porch in the Appalachians singing country and jazz blues. But that image doesn�t convey how good Keep Your Silver Shined is. Devon Sproule�s voice has a warm, loose quality, clear and supple and very melodic. The tunes themselves come from a thoughtful and deeply musical place. They often surprise and are always catchy.

This, her fourth album, is chock full of quality songs, which have taken her 4 years to write � a project she started at the grand old age of 20. The opening track is exuberant, a country/folk inspired romp, with banjo harmonica and fiddle, and increasingly breathless vocals describing the Virginia this Canadian-born singer knows and loves. As in the songs that follow, the words form a narrative poem, there may be a one line refrain, but it�s to pin down a flowing story.

The subjects are thoughtful and quirky and the lines full of assonance and alliteration which sound voluptuous and never contrived, just open and honest. We�re given images of a life lived and much appreciated and beauty detailed in small things. It�s as if Devon is inviting you to share her happiness in it all.

It�s all beautifully recorded. From the lazy jazz feel of Let�s Go Out with clarinet and accordeon to the country blues of the title track with it�s pedal steel guitar, the sound is warm and intimate as if you�re in the room with the musicians. In a room with really good musicians, that is.

The closing The Weeping Willow (trad) with guest vocals from Devon�s husband Paul Curreri and Mary Chapin Carpenter is rich with harmony, and quite simply beautiful. There is nothing fussy or overwrought on Keep Your Silver Shined. In fact the title sums it up. It�s a nostalgic expression about working to keep something fresh and new. That�s what Devon�s delivered. Something sounding like it�s from an old tradition, but it�s fresh and original. This silver�s sparkling! Buy it!

Distributed in the UK by Shellshock.

- Elizabeth Kinder

The Sun (UK) - 04/07

Devon Sproule
Keep Your Silver Shined (Tin Angel)

Hearing 24-year-old Devon sing, you imagine a performer from bygone, simpler times.

With her fourth album clocking in a 34 minutes, there's further simplicity. No clutter, nothing overblown. Everything short, sweet and engaging.

The Canada-born and Virginia-based singer takes everyday concern as her inspiration and flavours her songs with elements of folk, blues, country, even jazz and swing.

Mostly it's her own material but the closing number, a reverential rendition of the trad. The Weeping Willow, perfectly illustrates the timeless quality of her work.

Muruch - 04/07

Devon Sproule's Keep Your Silver Shined is a happy lil collection of rustic Appalachian folk and light bluegrass, with just a hint of jazz and pop. She sings sweetly about love, marriage, and rural life. Sproule is married to musician Paul Curreri, who appears on the album along with country star Mary Chapin Carpenter. Devon recently toured with the legendary Richie Havens, her previous release was included in Rolling Stone's "Critics Top Albums of 2003" list, and her new CD was released by Andy Friedman's City Salvage Records.

I was introduced to Devon Sproule's music by Songs:Illinois, one of the few music blogs that I still make time to read.

Keep Your Silver Shined opens with "Old Virginia Block", a little bluegrass ditty with a tin can thump and squeaky strings. It's my favourite track on the disc, and the mix of banjo, fiddle, and harmonica show off Devon's rich lilt while paying tribute to her home of choice. Then the swaying pedal steel, singing mandolin, and soft banjo strum of "Keep Your Silver Shined" display appreciation for life's little enjoyments with a small list of wishes to be fulfilled.

"1340 Chesapeake St." deepens into a vintage Parisian jazz tone with a touch of blues and Devon's ever present twang, while "Let's Go Out" layers poor folk lyrics with a jazzy clarinet and accordion rhythm that belong in an old speakeasy. The airy "Does The Day Feel Long" refers to the hippie commune in which Devon spent her childhood.

Sproule's voice reaches a throatier depth on the pretty standout track "Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest". The ode to backwoods hospitality "Stop By Anytime" is warm and friendly. And the gentle closing track "The Weeping Willow" is a traditional ballad that features guest vocals by Paul Curreri and Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Graffiti Magazine - 04/07

Graffiti Magazine
Devon Sproule - Keep Your Silver Shined

Devon Sproule's new album is warm, textured, relaxed and joyful like a summer day spent reading and napping in a hammock. Sproule's timelessly majestic neo-folk songs blend into jazz and bluegrass smooth and concise. This is one up-coming artist not to miss. For a preview: April 12 at Ohio University in Athens and April 13 at Parkersburg.s Blennerhassett Hotel.

- Justin McIntosh

British Country Music Association (UK) - 04/07

DEVON SPROULE - KEEP YOUR SILVER SHINED

If your becoming weary of all the female singer songwriters with the breathy voices and meaningless lyrics, then take a listen to this talented young woman, Devon Sproule, who's recently been touring the UK. In no way is this a country album, but there is quite a folksy feel to it, particularly on �Old Virginia Block� and the �Weeping Willow�. Its Tuneful, witty and extremely listenable.

Manchester Evening News (UK) - 04/07

Devon Sproule
Keep Your Silver Shined (Tin Angel Records)

She comes from Virginia and wears vintage dresses, and already the O Brother cliche is going begging. In fact, Devon Sproule favours slinky jazz chords and has the immaculate timning and poised delivery of a first class jazz singer. Oh, and there's no shortage of sass. But the Great American Songs Devon sings are her own Great American Songs. Though 'Great' is perhaps not the right word for songs that are so alive to the sensuality of the everyday. The Sproule philosophy is summed up in the title, Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest.

- Alan Brownlee

Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange (FAME) - 03/07

Devon Sproule
Keep Your Silver Shined
Tin Angel Records

I have a confession to make: I like Devon Sproule.

I like Devon Sproule a lot!

Now this just isn't your everyday schoolboy crush or mid-life fantasy. I mean who wouldn't absolutely fall for a breezy Maria Muldaur like delivery and a CD full of easy, that's-how-the-moment-goes kind of songs? Songs you can hum along to. Songs you can actually relate to. This is what you'll hear and like on Keep Your Silver Shined.

Like a lot.

Delivering mightily on the promise of 2003's Upstate Songs, Sproule's wily, laid-back blend of front porch hoedown (Old Virginia Block) and trad/jazz done all soulful (Let's Go Out) molds seamlessly with her folky roots (Does The Day Feel Long), while The Weeping Willow (with Mary Chapin Carpenter) has Appalachian echoes. Add a lively and poetic lyricism ("We got the last of the apples/Rosy just from the weather"; "Blue Ridge brick in an almond shade") and musicianship as fine as it gets. Devon Sproule is one artist we had all better tune our ears and hearts to.

Track List:

* Old Virginia Block
* Keep Your Silver Shined
* 1340 Chesapeake St.
* Let's Go Out
* The Well-Dressed Son to His Sweetheart
* Eloise & Alex
* Does The Day Feel Long?
* Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest
* Stop By Anytime
* The Weeping Willow

Produced by Jeff Romano

BBC - 03/07

Devon Sproule
Keep Your Silver Shined
Tin Angel Records

Though still only 24, Devon Sproule's Keep Your Silver Shined will be her fourth album. Her last, Upstate Songs, was listed as one of Rolling Stone�s best albums of 2003 and I can only see this one making more of a splash.

Sproule grew up on communes in Canada and Virginia with her musician parents and started playing in a local mall for spare change as a teenager. The autonomy this upbringing bestowed on her from a young age � for example leaving high school early to dedicate her time to music � certainly comes through in these very original, carefully crafted songs (she apparently spends about a month writing each one).

Sproule has called this latest her �getting married album� and it is both more settled and more playful in tone than her last instalment. The style ranges from the melancholy vintage-country of �'Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest'� to the whimsical �'Let�s Go Out'�, written in the style of a slightly twee but very endearing jazz standard. Elsewhere on the album are hints in turn of Django Reinhardt and Gillian Welch.

There�s plenty of harmonica, fiddle and banjo for the folk/country fan, but what comes through more strongly than any genre is the personal stamp of Devon herself; beautifully sparse arrangements like delicate spun-sugar constructions, and melodies that surprise the ear when you first hear them, but which then get under your skin much more than anything more obvious would.

Another joy is Sproule�s mellow voice and delivery which deftly balance country/folk solidity with jazzy sophistication.

In many of the lyrics Sproule summons up a rather idealised picture of Virginia and the laid-back country lifestyle, �watching the screen blow in and the / hummingbirds swarm� and �the sun spread thick on the worn out lawn�.

But it�s all rendered so eloquently and delivered so unaffectedly that it�s extremely difficult not to buy into the dream; one can only believe that this sparkling young musician is following her own call to enjoy life to the full; �Let the humidity curl your hair, / And the mulberries stain your toes�.

- Miriam Craig

The Observer (UK) - 03/07

Devon Sproule
Keep Your Silver Shined (Tin Angel Records)

There's a refreshing sweetness about the work of this 24-year-old American songwriter -- there in her mellifluous vocals and poetic, freewheeling lyrics that, in the way of Bjork and Joanna Newsom, are more blank verse than rhyming schemes. Sproule's songs ooze the atmosphere of balmy Virginia days - she grew up in a commune in the state - and her sunny outlook is infectious. She even has a song called 'Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest'. This second UK release extends her musical reach into swing and country flavours, clarinet and pedal-steel accompaniments abound.

- Neil Spencer

God Is In The TV (UK) - 03/07

Devon Sproule + Adrian Crowley @ The Luminaire, London March 23rd 2007

The Luminaire is the greatest venue in London for many a reason, it has the best atmosphere, the friendliest staff, the best policies (shush, when the bands are on) the most eclectic line up from night to night, the best soundtracks between bands, a brilliant overall sound and a quality control of bands that you can't find in many other places in the UK and definitely not in London.

With the good men from Tin Angel Records (the new Coventry label from the bar of the same name) showcasing their signing Miss Devon Sproule - and gaining assistance from Mister Adrian Crowley - the list of sterling music that has lately engulfed the Luminaire is not yet set to take a fall.

Taking to the stage with guitar in hand, Adrian Crowley plays a set of songs that tell tales of distant brothers and life in Ireland. His heartfelt tales and chiming guitars fill the air with melancholy but it's a beautiful thing. Imagine if snow patrol gained any form of marginal talent and they would begin to sound this superb.

In between sets saw Tin Angel Records spin some of their finest ranging from Dolly Parton To The Doors with splashes of Johnny Cash And Ray Charles thrown in for good measure it was certainly good enough to keep everyone on their toes while we were waiting for Miss Sproule to weave her magic.

Adorned in a vintage dress with pinned back hair and brandishing a Gibson that was far older than the pretty lady playing it, Devon played songs from when she was just 17 years old "before my husband taught me how to finger-pick" all the way up to her present day and songs off the new record 'Keep Your Silver Shined.' You could close your eyes and be whisked to a time when things were simpler and the people were nicer and the hustle and bustle of London Town was a million miles away. Starting solo her sugar sweet voice bopping along nicely to the jazzy chords and impressive picking her hands made.

When she started to feel lonely, on came her band for the evening, consisting of Drums, Bass and Pedal Steel which was provided by the UK legend BJ Cole. It's at this point that Miss Sproule, whose solo renditions were beautiful, goes from that to damn near perfect. The words spring from her mouth so sincerely and cascading with Cole's swelling harmonious melodies, it doesn't get much better than this. With each song like hearing stories told from friends far gone, you only wish that as you walk outside, Charlottesville, which sounds so charming in your head, was at your feet.

Come back soon, Devon Sproule! Life is a lot more pretty when your songs are around.

- Ross Drummond

Songs:Illinois - 03/07

New music from Devon Sproule - "Keep Your Silver Shined" (City Salvage/Waterbug)

It's been three years since Devon Sproule's critically acclaimed release Upstate Songs and now Devon is back with her follow-up. They say you've gotta write what you know and Devon follows that advice on this record centered around her recent marriage (to singer-songwriter Paul Curreri) and her adopted home state of Virginia.

Devon takes the roots of Virginian music to use as her sonic palette, typically this means mountain music, appalachian waltzes and bluegrass laments (this is when it doesn't stray into noir jazz). Keep Your Silver Shined is being released by City Salvage and distributed by Waterbug and has an April release date, but is available now from Waterbug here. Devon makes organic music that is as unhurried and as relaxed as a spring afternoon. The new record has already received praise from NPR's This American Life and will surely go down as one of the great roots records of 2007.

- Craig Bonnell

Fret Soup - 03/07

Devon Sproule, Keep Your Silver Shined

Another great young songwriter and guitarist (and singer). What I like most about Devon is how she's internalized the jazz and swing music that color her songs. Instead of trying to write a "jazz standard" or simply imitate swing music, she uses jazz's harmonic and rhythmic signatures as part of the music she draws on to construct her songs.

- Scott Nygaard
(Writer, Composer, Guitarist for David Grisman, Darol Anger, Chris Thile, Tim O'Brien, Tony Furtado, Jerry Douglas)

C-Ville Weekly - 03/07

Keep Your Silver Shined
Devon Sproule
City Salvage Records/Waterbug

A week after their annual Valentine�s Day show, Devon Sproule and Paul Curreri sit side-by-side at Caf� Cubano, looking mostly at each other while they speak with me about their new records, to be released a week apart at Gravity Lounge (March 17 and 23, respectively). Before the two set off for lunch, Curreri asks me: �Have you listened to our other records?

The following week, Sproule leaves me with a pile of CDs, including Keep Your Silver Shined, her follow-up to 2003�s sparse, intimate Upstate Songs. Silver is also, according to Sproule, her �getting married album,� which is appropriate, because the record evokes those four essential pieces of matrimonial fare�something old, new, borrowed and blue. By bringing in a range of guest musicians, Sproule updates her hushed first album while recalling the music styles that so obviously influenced her. John Winn�s breathy clarinet pairs with Matty Metcalfe�s accordion on �Let�s Go Out� and �Does the Day Feel Long� and gives Sproule�s songs a new direction by recalling the whimsical feel of early jazz.

The pleasure of Sproule�s singing is in her delivery, and she takes care to match it to the arrangement of her tunes to make her poetry more vivid. Silver opens with �Old Virginia Block,� in which Sproule�s images of �a shiny red violin� (echoed by Lasko�s jaunty fiddle) and �dead beat brown grass and the packed dirt� are reinforced by Sproule and Lasko�s choices to take the scenic route to the center of their notes.

But Sproule�s record is no departure from her earlier tunes; rather, Sproule�s life between albums has offered her a wealth of music knowledge that she flawlessly handpicks to fit her writing. On the record�s title track, Sproule lists her everyday joys�drinking with friends, �a felt hat collection, a dresser to put my pants in��then asks, �What more could a woman want?� Instead of letting her list end, Sproule adds to it��I want an overhaul for my guitar, a claw foot tub and a shiny car...to wait and take my time, all my time, to keep my silver shined.� Sproule�s appetite for music of all styles and instruments of all tones make Keep Your Silver Shined an immaculate record of giant steps, yes�but it is also a new bag of tricks that make her old favorites more of a joy.

Keep Your Silver Shined will be released on March 17 at the Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville, VA. National release is April 17th!

- Brendan Fitzgerald

The Hook - 03/07

Getting comfy: Sproule and Curreri's efforts pay off

Devon Sproule first shared Keep Your Silver Shined with The Hook during the spring of 2006 for the annual music issue, explaining that it told the story of her engagement to fellow Charlottesville songwriter Paul Curreri, their marriage, and the welcome monotony of married life. "That's kind of the theme of the record: feeling good about Virginia and settling down," she says.

Then the CD release was unexpectedly postponed until March. March 2007, that is.

"Because it takes me so long to write each one, for better or for worse the songs tend to sound different," she explains. "So finding a way to make this record sound cohesive took some fiddling."

That included making last-minute tweaks to the arrangement, mastering and re-mastering (a total of six attempts!), and shopping it around to labels, an endeavor that ultimately proved fruitless. "People still think shopping a record around is a good idea," she says, "but record labels don't know what to do with themselves. I got a couple of good offers, but nothing worth giving up the independence or the money."

It's a level of determination that she says she wouldn't be capable of without Curreri by her side-- despite her early start as one of Charlottesville's most promising songwriters.

"When I was a teenager, I didn't have a comfortable relationship with music," she says, "and now I do. When I was younger, I told the people I dated that music was the most important thing to me, but I didn't really prioritize it. Now that I'm with someone who absolutely prioritizes it, it gives me the space to do that too."

And she promises that she is doing it, even if it still takes her about a month to write a song.

Curreri says that it's typically worth the wait. "I think in the time she wrote the 12 for Keep Your Silver Shined, she only wrote one that didn't work," he marvels. "She hits the bullseye almost every time."

Curreri, on the other hand, tends to bang out a lot more compositions-- and throw away a lot more as well. He estimates there were upwards of 25 songs to choose from when compiling his new album, The Velvet Rut, which he'll be releasing a week after Sproule's.

After months of aimless writing and recording, he says, "It just occurred to me that I had been recording a lot of music for three or four months, so I just looked at all the tracks to see if I'd been making anything decent or cohesive." And, squinting really hard, he found that he did see the outline of a record.

"It was especially cohesive because I had written it so quickly," he says-- every track is the result of a late night flood and was complete almost before he knew he was writing it. In many cases, he says, the songs were written and recorded in one night and then never played again.

The artwork for The Velvet Rut includes a jagged drawing of a man in distress; Curreri says he was in bad condition emotionally and creatively until he started putting the album together. "It sort of saved Paul's life," says Sproule, "because he was not doing so great before that-- not feeling creative, trying different antidepressants, and that sort of thing. As soon as we got those speakers up, he was in there all day every day, feeling better and making music."

"And now he's off the meds," she adds.

Shimmers of iconic African guitarist Ali Farka Tour� show up occasionally on songs like "The Wasp," and he's mentioned by name in the lyrics to "Loretta." Curreri says this was part of a deliberate musical attempt to rouse himself.

"There was a solid year where I intentionally tried to listen to music that seemed to be enveloped by a sense of goodness," he says, specifically naming Black Uhuru, Bob Marley, Duke Ellington, and Thelonious Monk. "It doesn't have to be positive as in 'Hey, go water your flowers and sit in the sun. It's positive as in, 'Life is passing, let's take advantage of it.'"

Catch Devon Sproule at the Gravity Lounge Saturday, March 17 (8pm $10) and Paul Curreri there Friday, March 23 (7pm, $8).

- Vijith Assar

The Independent (UK) - 03/07

Devon Sproule
Keep Your Silver Shined
Tin Angel Records

"If you dress sharp, play well, be modest and keep good what you have/When you're warmed up in a wood room/What could be better?" asks Devon Sproule on one track, and put on the spot like that, it's hard to dispute. This fourth album from the 24-year-old Canadian presents her as a latterday old-timey gal in the manner of Jolie Holland, with feet in the bluegrass/country and swing/jazz camps. Her vocal inflection has something of Maria Muldaur's blend of innocence and experience, while the clarinet, accordion and loping double bass on tracks such as "Does The Day Feel Long?" and "Let's Go Out" recalls Leon Redbone and Dan Hicks. Elsewhere, "Old Virginia Block" offers a poetic tribute to her adoptive home state, animated by the bluegrass fiddle dancing its serpentine way through the song.

- Andy Gill

Irish Times (UK) - 03/07

Devon Sproule
Keep Your Silver Shined (Tin Angel)

You'd want to be an awful hardass to dislike this engaging, slightly wacky, always musical album of delightful coffee-shop folk-country-pop-swing.

This is Sproule's second UK release, after an avalanche of praise for her UK debut, Upstate Songs. That kind of attention can make life difficult, but Virginia-native Sproule has an easy way with a colourful lyric, chronicling the giddy bohemian life of herself and her inner circle, including husband musician Paul Curreri.

And yet the most arresting song carries a darker tone. Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest is part Lucinda Williams, part Lou Reed, a more bleached-out view of the world. But mostly she is redolent of a together Victoria Williams, and her singing, songwriting and musicianship signals a serious talent.(Mary Chapin Carpenter fans might note that she sings on the final track, a heartfelt verion of the traditional The Weeping Willow).

- Joe Breen

NetRhythms - 03/07

Devon Sproule - Keep Your Silver Shined (Tin Angel)

The debut release by the new Coventry label, spawned from the increasingly legendary venue, the Canadian born, Virginia based singer-songwriter�s fourth album draws thematic inspiration from her recent marriage to fellow musician Paul Curreri and musical influences from her explorations of jazz and swing.

Evocative at times of Victoria Williams, it�s a lazy sun dappled, gurgling creek of an album, opening to the back porch banjo n fiddle moonshine blues Old Virginia Block and closing with the plaintive traditional The Weeping Willow where she harmonises with Curreri and a curiously uncredited Mary Chapin Carpenter to backwoods hymnal effect.

In between she also trades lines with hubbie (who also plays on most of the tracks) on his own wistful reverie Eloise & Alex, lounges in a hammock (lyrically and musically) for Does The Day Feel Long (where Leon Redbone meets Maria Muldaur) with its double bass and clarinet, and shuffles into a breathy bossa nova breeze for Stop By Anytime, a song surely hewn from the pages of Mark Twain�s picture book. And isn�t there just a hint of fellow countrywomen the McGarrigles on the playful delights of The Well-Dressed Son To His Sweetheart?

So homespun you can almost taste the apple juice and smell the lilacs drying on the wall, it�s peppered with images of nature and domesticity; orchards and a grocery list pinned by a magnet on the title track, a basement full of wine at the jaunty lollopping 1340 Chesapeake, and noting how �a groundhog ate the lettuce� on the gorgeous clarinet and accordion brushed Let�s Go Out.

Combining her finely sketched observational songs with the laid back effortlessness of the playing (a special plaudits to Nate Brown on drums), this could well be shaping up as one of the year�s best contributions to the library of American folk roots. Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest she sings. She does and she is. Allow me to sing her praises then.

Style Weekly - 02/07

So it's potentially hazardous to work with your spouse, office crushes and what-all, yet more so when the couple is musical. Think of the spats over groupies, damn it. Which is perhaps why Charlottesville singer-songwriters Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule generally avoid sharing a stage. But relationships are built on trust, so the two are playing the Stretchin' series at the Barksdale - their first duet in Richmond - and we'll get a peek into the music that powers that household. Curreri's swerving blues licks are kept light by his lyrics: part mediation, part chitchat. Sproule's acoustic guitarwork dances around like a cat against your legs, warm and familiar, while the woman herself purrs bits of poetry that make you forget what year it is. The show is Sunday, March 4th at the Barksdale Theater.

- Brandon Reynolds

Santa Barbara News-Press - 09/06

Sometimes, opening acts do much more than just act as pleasant filler before the main attraction. Sometimes, they stand out as something audiences want to know more of.

Take, for example, Virginian singer-songwriter Devon Sproule, whose opening set for the Duhks as part of the Lobero's "Sings Like Hell" series last March was one of the more disarmingly charming sets heard all year around these parts.

Delightfully idiosyncratic, yet also grounded and rootsy, Sproule has made a few albums and won plenty of acclaim from critics and discerning listeners, while occupying a place virtually all her own on the scene. We'll get to know her better when Sproule returns to Santa Barbara, playing at SOhO on Tuesday.

Sproule's luminous new album, "Keep Your Silver Shined," is full of her usual flowing melodic spirits, side trips from folk to jazz and back, and tales of a simple life in Virginia.

Her music seems like a field report from a slice of America, off to the side of urban realities or the 21st century, that some of us would love to tap into. Yet she's much more than a retro-bucolic neo-folkie (pardon the hyphenation).

Though born in Kingston, Ontario, in 1982, Sproule was raised on a 465-acre, income-sharing commune called Twin Oaks, in rural Virginia, and remains a Virginian at heart. Now happily ensconced in the shadow of the Blue Ridge mountains, she is married to musician Paul Curreri, with whom she also collaborates.

She has joined the ranks of musicians who have hit the road and nurtured their own career destinies in an independent way. Asked about her attitude toward live playing, Sproule answers in a way that reveals her candor and attention to details.

"Performing is about the only thing that's stayed consistent for me in the last eight years or so," she says. "The rest of my life has changed dramatically, from being a teenager living with boyfriends or my mom, to settling down with a long-term boyfriend, then husband; taking hikes with my sister-in-law and her dog; actually having a sewing machine and using it -- all kinds of crazy stuff like that."

Many of Sproule's songs slip out of the conventional songwriter-speak and into observations about the minutiae of what's around her.

"If I'm ever at a loss and have no jazzy refrain to write from, I often find myself setting the scene with a description of the season, then the weather, then perhaps the state of the kitchen, what I'm wearing and finally, how all of that makes me feel, or what ties it all together.

"I've never written fiction and very little poetry. That said, I'm attracted to the structure that some of the old-fashioned forms of poetry are written within. One of my favorite parts of writing is melody work. I often use the guitar to remind me of notes that my voice has forgotten to consider."

Humor and eccentricities are also allowed in Sproule's songbook, another refreshing touch.

"Audiences these days aren't as used to hearing songs that contain humor, but aren't necessarily funny songs. Maybe less people incorporate it because it's difficult to do. I don't listen to much contemporary singer-songwriter music, whether it be the hipster whispery stuff or the regular folk story-telling thing."

As an artist with a growing legion of fans and such illustrious gigs as a support slot for Dave Matthews on her resume, this highly musical high school drop-out has succeeded on artistic terms, even if commercial pickings have been slim so far.

"I guess you could say that I've never really done much else and it's certainly what I do best," she figures.

Balancing the artistic and logistical sides of her career can be rough, she admits.

"I could complain about that struggle, but generally I fell fortunate to be doing what I'm doing and getting paid to do it. It takes a lot of work, including emotional work. But I guess I'm pretty darned used to all of it. And now that I'm married, and enjoying being married, it leaves me a lot of room to concentrate on what I'm doing career-wise and feel supported in that.

"When it comes down to it, if I'm happy with the songs, the records and my performances, there's not much else for me to worry about."

DEVON SPROULE, Jenni Alpert opens
When: 8pm Tuesday
Where: SOhO, 1221 State St.

- Josef Woodard

Santa Barbara Independent - 09/06

The last time Devon Sproule came to town she had a vintage guitar dangling from her shoulder, a selection of songs as enchanting as the personality residing behind them, and a full house at the Lobero Theatre that wouldn�t let her leave the stage. It might have been Sings Like Hell that first introduced Sproule to Santa Barbara, but it is her considerable musical talent that has yielded a return invitation. This time around the Virginia native will be taking the stage at SOhO. Armed with a new album, she�s anxious to renew old acquaintances and likely to trigger an avalanche of new ones.

You had quite a visit with us last time � a full Lobero and a standing ovation. What were some of the highlights for you?
What immediately springs to mind was the raw food. And it wasn�t just raw food--it was organic strawberries dipped in warm carob! Only backstage in California does that happen. And I had this wonderful old Gibson guitar I borrowed from a friend--complete with electric pickups and decades of dirt on the fret board. Good sound, good food, good drink, a good instrument, and an enthusiastic audience--playing music doesn�t get any better than that.

You have kept some impressive musical company--Kelly Joe Phelps, Dave Matthews, David Gray. Now Mary Chapin Carpenter makes an appearance on your new recording, Keep Your Silver Shined. How did the two of you cross paths?
She actually heard one of my songs on the radio and took the time to find out who I was. I got an email from her one day that read, �Hi Devon, I�m also a singer/songwriter from the central Virginia area and I heard your song on the radio and I just wanted to tell you how much I like it.�

What was it like having someone of Mary Chapin�s stature working on your record?
It�s a wonderful experience, working with someone who hails from a different musical generation. Mary Chapin sang on the traditional high lonesome song that closes "Keep Your Silver Shined." I first heard the song on a mix tape that Willie Watson from the Old Crow Medicine Show made me, a version by Roscoe Holcombe. My husband and I decided to record it for the new record at the urging of our songwriter pal, Keith Morris. Mary Chapin told my producer Jeff Romano and I that the song was very similar to the songs she grew up singing, and that her harmonies reflected that.

You typically explore a lot of musical terrain within your sound. How do people usually react to that multiplicity?
I get the �quirky� thing a lot. And I have resigned myself to that being a good thing, especially since I am still pretty young. But if people are still calling me quirky when I�m in my forties, I�ll have to rethink that.

How much of a balancing act do you find music to be?
I try to walk a line between accessibility and musical integrity. And it�s tough at times because this isn�t a business where you can go to school, get a degree, get a job, and be guaranteed a future. It�s more a case of maybe if you dedicate yourself to an instrument and you work your ass off writing songs and then you happen to play in the right town on the right night and someone happens to be in the right mood and hears you, then maybe you might not have to work a day job anymore.

Do you work a day job?
I don�t, but there are still plenty of maybes in my musical life.

- Brett Leigh Dicks

Travels West - 04/06

Been meaning to write a post about Devon Sproule since I saw and heard her play at the Hotel Cafe on Cahuenga about two weeks ago.

Sproule's a singer-song writer born in Canada to commune-living American hippie parents. She eventually came south, to Virginia, to find that she a had a little country in her blood. Part of what my friend and workmate, Ben-wah, terms the "Charlottesville Underground" music scene, Sproule has released fours CDs and has toured extensively in the U.K.

I went to the Hotel Cafe not really knowing what to expect. I had niether noticed nor heard of the place until Be-Wah invited me to hear Sproule play. I was really pleasantly surprised. The Cafe is a spacious but dark, almost mysterious room, more suited to cloak and dagger that contemporary folk.

I don't count myself a big fan of folk, generally, but I came with an open mind. And it turned out to be worth the trip. At first blush Sproule reminded me of Mazzie Star with a little Patsy Cline thrown in, but without the steel-geetar twanginess of either. "Country music for the vintage clothing crowd*" is how I described it to Ben-wah after the show, though I was being a little too flip. What's really different about Sproule, to me, is her lyrics. She has a knack for turning the mundane into poetry, and is not afraid to be funny.

Her forthcoming album is "Keep Your Silver Shined."

Cville Weekly - 04/06
On The Record w/ Devon Sproule

Devon Sproule is one of those musicians who we have been lucky enough to see and hear growing up. She was busking on the Mall at 15, made her first recording a year later, and was produced by Stefan Lessard (DMB) at Haunted Hollow Studio when she was 18. In February Devon made her second tour of England, and last week she played showcases along the West Coast. The well respected "Sings Like Hell" series, in the 680-seat Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara was her anchor gig. With a new record of great songs in the can, she will be playing many of those new tunes on Friday night at her hometown venue here in Charlottesville, the Gravity Lounge. She will be joined by Lauren Hoffman and Sarah White.

Spencer Lathrop: Recent tours?
Devon Sproule: It's been perfect timing playing these showcases in the Bay Area and LA, what with the new record being just finished. David Crosby came out to one of the shows and I got to meet him. He was so nice -- like, Santa Claus nice. His long-haired wife came up with a handful of my CDs and said, "Oh -- without people like you playing good music these days, well, I just couldn't breathe!" And I'm all, "Well goodness, lucky I'm here!" I've been out on the road here with Joanie Mendenhall of Matt Curreri and the Exfriends (she's also a solo musician). She's got this guitar that I've been borrowing, a 1952 Gibson ES 125 that people, when they see it, they just go crazy, even when they don't know what it is. Joanie bought it from an old couple who played it on cruise ships in the 1960's. As far as England, it is true that the audiences have better attention spans. They're sweet as can be, but what with the food and the weather, I'm always happy to be home!

Spencer Lathrop: Current spins?
Devon Sproule: We just loaded up the 20-disc changer, and I've always prided myself on being a Beatles fan who actually listens to the Beatles. I admit, I did fast forward through a few songs on the White Album. Then Help! came on. I'm always surprised that more folks don't rank that as one of their classic albums (if any aren't classic). Matt Curreri and the Exfriends have a new album, Exercise Music for the Lonely, which is totally awesome. It'll be released in April. I'm a huge fan of that band. Most times, I'm too sick of solo songwriters to listen to any on CD. When I'm home, I find myself listening to gypsy jazz and swing on live365.com. I dig stuff that makes me happy, but is good homework at the same time."

First record?
My folks always told me that I dug Chopin's waltzes and nocturnes as a baby. Kind've pompous, I know, but I still like the idea. When I was old enough to choose, I went for the Beatles mix tapes my dad made me. We won't mention the Flashdance Soundtrack / Paula Abdul cassette that came later in life.

Guilty pleasures?
Errr... wine with lunch once in a while?

- Spencer Lathrop

Santa Barbara Independent - 04/06
Santa Barbara, CA

Sings Like Hell presents
The Duhks and Devon Sproule.
At the Lobero Theatre, Saturday, March 25.
Reviewed by Derek Svennungsen

The following is an excerpt from a conversation I had with my sister-in-law immediately following the latest Sings Like Hell show.

"So, what did you think?" she asked.

"Devon Sproule is the greatest musician ever. That's what I think," I replied.

"Right, but aren't you covering The Duhks?"

"I mean, could you believe how she went at her songs? She was like a red sparrow, swooping and swerving and warbling. I think I'm in love."

"You're married to my sister."

"God bless, that's right. I wish Devon would have played about 10 more songs. And told more self-deprecating stories about her dress and growing up in a commune and jazz. What a presence. She even made scat-singing enjoyable, something I never thought I'd say. She's hooked in to different wavelengths. What an absolute treat."

"And The Duhks?"

"Sproule deserves to be huge, don't you think? And of course, she never will be. The most beautiful birds are rarely seen. It's not right."

"I take it you didn't care that much for The Duhks."

"Did you?"

"Well I liked the music all right, but they were kinda dorky."

"What do you mean 'kinda'? I felt like I was in kindergarten, being encouraged to clap along and dance."

"But the music was good, don't you think?"

"Well, I liked some of the faster Celtic and Cajun stuff, but they need to stay away from the singing. And the dancing. And the tattoos. And the talking between songs. And the smiling. And the bad hairstylists."

"I know. I thought I was going to get seasick watching the singer dance. But I loved the fiddler. She was great."

"Agreed. Lots of nice drones and riffs. But she actually said, 'There is an abundance of positive energy in the house tonight.' That's not advisable."

"Devon Sproule. She was amazing. I hope she comes back to Santa Barbara for her own show sometime. A long one."

"Don't tell your sister, but I'll be in the front freaking row."

Maverick Magazine - 03/06

Canadian-born guitarist and songwriter Devon Sproule, returns to the UK this Spring for her latest round of shows ahead of her fourth album, Keep Your Silver Shined, which is due to be released later in the summer. She first toured the UK in February 2005 with fellow Virginian Paul Curreri. The two were married three months later and now live in Charlottesville, VA.

The twenty-three year old Devon was raised on Canadian folk music, 1950s doo-wop, and the Beatles. she spent her childhood on a 465-acre, 100-member commune, founded in the 1960's, in rural Virginia. After moving between private, public and home schooling, she eventually dropped out of high school, recorded her first record and began touring nationally, all before the age of eighteen.

The first CD, Long Sleeve Story was released in 2001 and produced by Dave Matthews Band bassist Stefan Lessard. Although the album drew acclaim from audiences all across America, it was the music on 2003's Upstate Songs that established her as a considerable, mature songwriting talent. The album was included in Rolling Stone's Critics Top Albums of 2003. Critic Julie Gerstein said of the record, "Upstate Songs is perhaps the sweetest and most honest folk-pop album recorded this year. Sproule's vocal and lyrical beauty is unmatched."

The singer herself says of her last CD, "It was a record of self and romantic discover - and my first effort at writing about the natural world. The new project, Keep Your Silver Shined, revolves much more around domesticity, settling down, and the sentiments - both settled and unsettling - that go along with being married."

She describes the new CD as, "less poetic than Upstate Songs, but lyrically stronger, in my opinion. And quite obviously, Keep Your Silver Shined reflects my new interest in jazz and swing. Even the first song, Old Virginia Block, which is produced with a more country and folk feel, is built on a jazz progression, called the Berklee Blues..."

In what is certainly her most mature and articulate statement to date, the quality of songwriting on Keep Your Silver Shined is sure to confirm Devon Sproule in the ranks of today's top songwriters. From the gleeful back porch thump of Old Virginia Block to the classic jazz standard treatment of Let's Go Out, and closing with the high lonesome traditional The Weeping Willow, performed with vocal accompaniment from her husband, Paul Curreri and fellow Virginian Mary Chapin Carpenter, it's no wonder that Devon Sproule has been turning so many heads in the music industry.

- Tony Clarke

The Metro, UK - 03/06

Songwriter Paul Curreri once called an album Songs For Devon Sproule, and listening to Sproule's own album, Upstate Songs, his obsession is understandable. The spare accompaniments highlight Sproule's voice, which is pure and breathy with just a hint of ache. Her songs run deep.

The title of the opener, Plea for a Good Night's Rest, says it plain, but the approach is allusive and poetic. She sets the scene with night stars and bats and mosquitoes and then pans to two lovers in bed: he restless with nightmares; she suffering agonies of sleeplessness. Sproule fearlessly uses difficult words and relishes archaic, poetic language. 'Come revenant, come ye gentle host,' she lullabies. Revenant, says the dictionary, is 'a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead.' The word links sleep with death, the ultimate oblivion.

Comically, endearingly, she pinpoints the cause of the insomnia as a bad conscience. 'Sleep, she comes to steal the ones who fill their glass and leave the rest...whose teeth get brushed, who eat enough and who know how to treat their friends.' The song is quintessential Devon Sproule: intimate, with floating melodies that parallel the free-ranging currents of the subconscious. She is literate but not genteel -- her rage and desire burn too fiercely for that. And, as she sings in Tristan & Isolde (how she defiantly drops in these classical references!): 'What love is more fierce than that of the young?'

- Mike Butler

Venue Magazine - 03/06
Bristol, UK

"The difficult 'which' album?" one can imagine Devon Sproule asking. Not for her a lifetime's work poured into the first one or two, draining the well of creativity for years to come. Instead, the Canadian-born country-folk-popster is, at the age of 23, touring ahead of her third long player release, 'Keep Your Silver Shined'.

Sure, she gave herself a head start by dropping out of high school, recording her debut and touring nationally before turning 18, but even so. Perhaps it's just a reflection of the 'do anything' sense of confidence likely to be gleaned from being raised on a 465-acre, 100-member commune in her adopted home of rural Virginia.

Whatever the reason, her fan base has grown markedly. And, indeed, influentially. "'Upstate Songs' is perhaps the sweetest and most honest folk-pop album recorded this year," said Rolling Stone, inducting her third release into their Critics' Top Albums of 2003.

The new one isn't due until the summer, but a promo sampler suggests it'll be another gem. 'Old Virginia Block' rolls along with the lightness and verve of Stacey Earle, whilst the title track neatly walks the traditional/modernist line with lines like "We got the rest of the apples, rosy just from the weather" augmented by pedal steel and mandolin, before a vintage dress and a flat out West are listed as equal bringers of pleasure. '1340 Chesapeake' adds more of the same, but to a Waitsian percussive undertow.

A distinctly jazz-influenced feel also permeates throughout, a new addition to her sound, and evidence - hooray! -of a musical journey far from completion.

NetRhythms, UK - 03/06

It would take a writer at least the equal of Devon Sproule to accurately describe the effects of Upstate Songs, and believe me once you've listened to the album, you'll realise that they are few and far between.

The only thing you can say with any degree of confidence is that you'll never have to ask who is she is twice, she is an unique musician and Upstate Songs is unforgettable.

Many of the tracks feel and sound so natural, unaffected and spontaneous that it would be easy to believe that they were the result of some unguarded late night moment, when Sproule was alone with guitar and thoughts.

If you are in need of a point of reference then the fractured Should Have Been Snow and White Kite At Georgetown Green suggest more of the originality and unpredictability of Rickie Lee Jones than anything remotely mainstream.

On Upstate Songs Devon Sproule becomes a musical chameleon, she disappears into the childlike charm of Plea For A Good Night's Rest only to reappear blazing with the naked passion of Farewell Seasick Suffering and the haunting romanticism of Tristan and Isolde on which Sproule is cushioned and cosseted by the sumptuous viola of April Leightty, Upstate Songs is an album of delicate shades rather than vivid colours, it hints and suggests rather than forces the feelings.

One benefit of such a simple album is that the lyrics wrap around the listener like a warm remembered dream, it is impossible to break free from lines like: 'Who will hear of love desolate, In which some number more than two lovers met?', they capture the heart and never let go.

The world that Devon Sproule has created on Upstate Songs is a wonderful, fantastical, romantic place. It's folk music completely engulfs its creator and ultimately enchants the listener, you'll never look at a song in quite the same way again after being drawn into the web Devon Sproule has spun on Upstate Songs.

Pennyblack Music, UK - 03/06

�Upstate Songs� is 23 year old Virginian Devon Sproule�s third album and the guitarist, singer-songwriter already has her fourth album, �Keep Your Silver Shined� set for release this summer.

Missing out on her debut �Devon� from 1998 and its follow up �Long Sleeve Story� from 2001 it�s impossible to tell if Sproule has made any progress along the way. Bearing in mind that she was only 16 when her debut was released it will be interesting to visit her previous records; as �Upstate Songs� is an accomplished set of songs one wonders what the younger Sproule was like during her teenage years.

That Sproule is now a skillful writer and guitarist is evidenced all over �Upstate Songs�. Raised on a 465 acre, 100 member commune in Virginia with a musical diet of the Beatles, Canadian folk music and the doo-wop music of the 50's it�s maybe no surprise that while Sproule certainly has a voice all of her own, the roots of her music can be heard in the songs of female singer songwriters from the 60's (Joni Mitchell, Carolyn Hester, Vashti Bunyan) to those still carrying the torch in the 2000's ( Vashti Bunyan again, Laura Cantrell, Lucy Kaplansky).

Sproule has one of those rare, pure voices. Ideally suited to the type of folk-pop music she produces those angelic vocals would sound good singing almost anything but framed for the most part by just her acoustic guitar the songs she has written for �Upstate Songs� show off her vocals to perfection. No unnecessary production tricks, keeping the music sparse, and with those vocals upfront and intimate Sproule really draws you into her songs, be it one of the nine originals here or the cover of �My Baby Just Cares For Me� the song made famous by Nina Simone which Sproule reshapes into her own. This song alone is worth the price of admission. If any proof were needed of Sproule�s vocal prowess take a listen to her reading of this song. There are again no unnecessary trimmings added to the song. Sproule�s jazz tinged vocals are all that are needed to make the song hers.

While a predominately acoustic album, a 3am collection of songs, one for those quiet moments of reflection, there are times when Sproule plays electric guitar and where drums and bass flesh out the sound which stops the album becoming too much of a good thing. The song, �Should Have Been Snow�, shows a grittier Sproule and coming as it does at the mid-way point of the album it makes a nice diversion before returning to the mellower sounds again with the following song, �You Aren�t Really Here, It Isn�t Really Light Out�, which highlights Sproule�s winning way with melodies.

In a period when the female singer-songwriter genre is already overcrowded it�s more difficult than ever for those that deserve a little more attention to project enough of that special something to get them noticed. By doing what seems to come natural to her Sproule stands more chance than the rest to grab some of that attention. For one still in her early twenties to produce such a compelling collection of songs on this only her third album, it seems Sproule�s future is assured. We look forward to this summer�s �Keep Your Silver Shined� with anticipation.

- Malcolm Carter

Songs:Illinois - 05/05

Devon Sproule's Upstate Songs

Devon Sproule made some charming down home recordings which she then released as cds and are now available online at her site. I've written about these in the past here. Devon also released a proper debut on an established NY label in 2003. The name of the record is Upstate Songs and it came out on City Salvage Records.

Unlike her work on the homemade recordings this release focuses more on her own literate folk compostions and was completed in a studio. Produced by her musical partner and fellow singer-songwriter (and now husband) Paul Curreri, this release garnered much praise upon it's release and Devon has been touring hard behind it for a few years.

Picked as one of Rolling Stones 2003 records of the year Upsate Songs is still available through CDBaby and if you get it now it should hold you over until Devon graces us with another cd. Buy it here.

The Hook - 02/05

Age: 22

Why here? Even communes can get old.

What's worst about living here? Seriously long walk to the subway

Favorite hangout? 802 Stonehenge Ave.

Most overrated virtue? Impartiality

People would be surprised to know? I'm actually quite tall.

What would you change about yourself? My clumsiness

Proudest accomplishment? Upstate Songs

People find most annoying about you? That I'm often reluctant to discuss what people find annoying about me. Annoying, right?

Whom do you admire? Anita O'Day

Favorite book? William Steig's Ruminations

Subject that causes you to rant? SunCom

Biggest 21st century thrill? I hit my left turn signal. I turn left. Suddenly, my left turn signal has turned off. Wow.

Biggest 21st century creep-out? 47th Annual Grammy Awards

What do you drive? '99 Toyota Corolla

In your car CD player right now? Monk's Underground

Next journey? UK, Ireland, and France, touring with Paul Curreri

Most trouble you've ever gotten in? Stealing and wrecking a van when I was 15

Regret? Not insisting that the stripper at Paul's birthday party dance to Lucinda instead of Ozzy

Favorite comfort food? Hippie stuff, like the food at Twin Oaks, or the Little Grill in Harrisonburg

Always in your refrigerator? Rather on the refrigerator: A five-liter box of Almaden's Mountain Burgundy

Must-see TV? SNL

Favorite cartoon? Fluff Ass

Describe a perfect day: Whiffle ball at Jeff Romano's

Walter Mitty fantasy? I hit a grand slam at the whiffle ball game at Jeff Romano's...again.

Who'd play you in the movie? Er, um, if it were up to me... Uma?

Most embarrassing moment? Confusing the Cubs and the Bears at my first Christmas with the in-laws

Best advice you ever got? Never have a back-up plan.

Favorite bumper sticker? "Give me ambiguity or give me something else."

- Vijith Assar

All Music Guide - 11/04
Devon Sproule Upstate Songs
City Salvage Records

It should be said right off the bat: Upstate Songs is the album the world has been waiting to hear from Devon Sproule. It is the dramatic leap into truly memorable, engaging, and quality songwriting few artists ever achieve -- and of those few, fewer still achieve when their careers are just at their beginnings. On her first two long-players, Devon (2000) and Long Sleeve Story (2001), Sproule hinted that she was on her way to the absolutely excellent songcraft presented here, showing fistfuls of creativity and the initiative to pull off ambitious melodies, but up until Upstate Songs she had yet to write the set of songs that fulfilled her significant potential. Long Sleeve Story, produced by Dave Matthews Band bassist Stefan Lessard, came close with a few phenomenal tracks like "Fast Statue" but, for the most part, the album tended to wander into territory Sproule seemed to just settle for instead of taking the time to really develop -- however, it was easy to let it slide due to the fact that she was only 19 when Long Sleeve Story came out. With Upstate Songs, her musical vision is no longer aimless nor is her image, which on her previous releases clashed with the music it represented. Where previously she had truncated her name to just Devon, she has released this album under her full name with artwork that much more accurately augments its contents: a direct, sincere and elegant no-frills recording that fully showcases the remarkable guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist Sproule is.

Gentle, poetic, classy, and achingly gorgeous, Upstate Songs is the chronicle of Sproule's pilgrimage to upstate New York from her home in Virginia to find the proper place to accentuate in spirit the delicate intricacies of the songs written for this record. From the opening track, the stark and cozy "Plea for a Good Night's Rest," Upstate Songs links arms with the floating atmosphere of a summer evening and cycles through the subtle dynamics of two acoustic guitars, played skillfully by Sproule and co-producer Paul Curreri -- the only break from this instrumentation being the viola ribbon weaving through "Tristan and Isolde" and the band accompaniment on "Should Have Been Snow." It speaks volumes that these songs can stand so strongly without the need for elaborate arrangements to retain the listener's attention, deftly proving that Sproule needs nothing to hide behind. She must be proud of this effort; one gets the impression that she may have even surprised herself with the quality of songs represented here, because the truth is that many artists never reach a point in their careers that is this solid -- and keeping in mind she was only 21 at the time of this release makes the album even more exciting knowing that plenty more should come. But regardless of what comes next, Upstate Songs is so honest, so well-crafted, and so effortlessly played that the album exudes timelessness, so the question is not if, but when will the world find ears to hear it.

- Gregory McIntosh

The Clock - 10/04

In argyle socks and pinstriped pants, Devon Sproule rocked the Fire Place Lounge at Plymouth State University this past Thursday with sugary-folk, brightly strummed melody on her shiny, new orange Gretsch. Hailing from Virginia, Sproule draws on multiple styles to create an improbable sound, falling somewhere between Jill Sobule and Buddy Holly.

During the performance, her voice doubled as a second instrument, passing from scat to jazzy, wordless vocals effortlessly. She spun sassy, irreverent narratives with a daunting vocabulary, selecting tracks from all three of her albums. Her songs were so well told, that the show read as a collection of short stories as well as a concert. Vocals weren't the only notable aspect of her live performance; she could easily stand alone as a guitarist. She baited the audience with foot-tapping, bubbly rhythm and reeled them in by dropping to gentle, pianissimo endings that drifted apart like mist on a morning pond.

Sproule is at her best onstage. She communicates an inner joy with half-lidded facial expressions and wry smiles. Her conversation flows as easily as her music, and is almost as entertaining.

- David Commins

Puremusic.com - 04/04
Devon Sproule Upstate Songs
City Salvage Records

Fantastic. Young Devon Sproule is an absolute wonder, luminous.

To be this musically evolved at 21, one might need to be on their third record already, and to have a handful of years of national touring under their belt. They might indeed, and this one is, and has.

She recorded her first record at sixteen. It was produced by Stefan Lessard, the bassist for the Dave Matthews Band, the celebrities of her region. Devon was raised in an intentional community called Twin Oaks, a near 500-acre farm in the Charlottesville, VA area. Her first pair of albums were more in the dark pop & rock neighborhood, and I'm really excited to hear them. Since it's a blessed mystery to me how a person gets here by 21, I'm looking forward to walking backward with her a little bit.

I saw Devon and cohort and co-producer Paul Curreri showcase at the recent Folk Alliance, and hung out just a little with them. They have a wealth of gifts, and an abundance of chemistry. Signature lyrical styles, hot guitar chops, humor, and grace. But we profiled the work of Paul last month (Songs for Devon Sproule) so we'll concentrate on the subject at hand. The walking bass line in her country blues treatment of the jazz classic "My Baby Just Cares for Me" is flying by as I write. Time stops for a minute, the way it does when I realize I'm listening to someone I haven't heard a version or the likes of before.

Most of the selections on Upstate Songs are just Devon Sproule and her guitar. I've heard many a seasoned and celebrated professional do that and not measure up to these tracks. Paul Curreri adds his great acoustic playing to a trio of tunes, and "Tristan and Isolde" with April Leightty on viola is particularly memorable.

We kid you not, this person is like someone from another time, if not another planet. She is one of our favorite new artists, and people. Disarmingly charming, and confoundingly talented.

Cville Weekly - 02/04
Rolling Stone // Devon Sproule
"Upstate Songs Makes Year-End List"

Big news for local singer/songwriter Devon Sproule. RollingStone.com released its Critics Picks for the best releases of 2003, and Sproule's Upstate Songs was chosen by critic Julie Gerstein as her No. 4 pick of the year. Gerstein writes, "Upstate Songs is perhaps the most honest folk-pop album recorded this year. Sproule's vocal and lyrical beauty is unmatched."

Reached by phone, Gerstein raved at length, saying she had first discovered Sproule at a Philadelphia gig. "I remember being really blown away by Devon's performance," she says. "I'm not really a fan of any kind of singer/songwriter, folky type stuff at all. But I really feel she brings something special to the genre. I think it's a sense of sweetness, innocence and clarity. And her record is so nice because it's so simply produced, and so very evocative."

Sproule was stunned upon learning the news, especially since Upstate Songs was essentially an independent release. "I hadn't heard about it until I got an e-mail recently from a fan in England, who sent me the Rolling Stone link. I was very pleased and very surprised, yes," she says. "It's great to see independent or small-label releases applauded in a publication like Rolling Stone."

Sproule gives thanks to collaborators like Jeff Romano and Paul Curreri, who co-produced the record, and has plans for returning the favor: "I hope the Rolling Stone review brings Upstate Songs to more listeners' ears, and that it makes me enough extra money to take my boyfriend out to dinner. And buy him a banjitar, and another bottle of good scotch for the house. Oh! And an upright piano."

Only 21, Sproule wrote most of Upstate Songs when she was 19. "The remarkable thing, Gerstein says, "is that, listening to her music, you get the sense that Devon is still growing, and that her talent's going to mature even more with time."

Rolling Stone - 12/03
"Critics Top Albums of 2003"
Devon Sproule
Upstate Songs
City Salvage Records

Perhaps the sweetest and most honest folk-pop album recorded this year, Sproule's vocal and lyrical beauty is unmatched.

- Julie Gerstein

The New Yorker - 11/03
Devon Sproule
Upstate Songs
City Salvage Records

From Charlottesville, Virginia, Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule each play their own delicately muscled folk blues. Together, the pair wrestle gorgeously through sweet, cutting harmonies.

9x Magazine - 08/03
Devon Sproule
Upstate Songs
City Salvage Records

Charlottesville gem Devon Sproule latest offers up yet a new sampling of her unique and evolving talents. Songs that capture tender moments with a shuddering intimacy such as set opener "Plea for a Good Night's Rest" abound. Quiet guitar that's lush yet spare combines throughout with a powerful yet gently unpredictable vocal style that seems to come straight from an inner source of love and wonder. Sure and insightful lyrics examine the world and its mysteries with an eye for those tiny treasures many of us miss or take for granted.

The open arms and hope that drive "Farewell, Seasick Suffering" reveal a source of strength and youthful certainty best never forgotten. "Tristan and Isolde" celebrates life as it casts a gorgeous spell of solitude and newfound joy. "My Baby Just Cares for Me" bursts with humor and jazzy vocal twists. "Country Sun" is simply a terrific love song sung with a gentle incandescence. The intensity of "Should Have Been Snow" is the closest this project gets to a rock 'no roll hybrid as it incorporates electric guitar, drums, bass and keys.

But whether accompanied by a combo, her solo guitar, friend Paul Curreri's six string or by April Leightty's lovely viola, Devon's songs demand a listener's careful attention. Upstate Songs is a powerful acoustic project that reveals a completely original talent. Gentle and biting, smart and strong, Devon's songs speak of purity and love. They speak of adventure and life. They speak to the heart and the mind. This young woman is only coming out of the blocks at the beginning of a long poetic, musical and visionary trip. I'm more than happy to follow her journey farther as she meanders through its twists and turns. It's going to be a great ride.

- Ames Arnold

Cville Weekly reviews Upstate Songs - 6/03
Devon Sproule
Upstate Songs
City Salvage Records

I received a rough mix of Devon Sproule's "Upstate Songs" about five months ago and since then it's become a constant companion, gracing the latest of nights with lush melodies, tales of young love and true hearts -- the strains of a viola carving out the falling notes of a beautiful sorrow.

"Plea For a Good Night's Rest," a soul mate's lullaby that revels in the shared solitude of a primitive, candle-lit cabin, blindsided me from the start, and is, without reservation, an instant classic. So much so that if "Plea" were to appear 10 years from now in a songbook next to Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne," I might only blink and admire the juxtaposition.

Confounding, then, to consider Sproule was only 20 when she wrote such a song. Easier to imagine it snatched from the heavens one moonlit night while Gabriel and Paul smiled and looked the other way. But "Upstate Songs" is loaded with such treasures: "Tristan and Isolde," "Should Have Been Snow," "Farewell, Seasick Suffering!" and "Country Sun" mark quantum leaps in the development of Sproule's songwriting, and are already becoming reference points in the ongoing conversation of Charlottesville's music community.

This resonance has much to do with the point in life she writes from. Young, but with a life lived far beyond her years, Sproule sings like a sparrow perched on the crossroads of innocence and experience, embodying the wonder of youth in the face of Creation, yet, like an old soul, attuned to a world more full of weeping than we can understand. So taken, I have come to associate Sproule with Miranda from "The Tempest," wandering her island under the spell of Ariel's music and exclaiming "Oh my!" to the brave new world before her.

Yes, Devon, the waif prodigy who went from busking on the Downtownn Mall to opening shows for the Dave Matthews Band in such a short span of time, has come of age on "Upstate Songs".

-Keith Morris

The Hook 6/03,

By my calculations, Devon Sproule, is at most 21 years old. She's been written about in The Village Voice and The New Yorker, has toured nationally, and June 1 will mark the CD release party for her third album, Upstate Songs.

If that doesn't give a kick in the butt to a certain category of (not really struggling) struggling musicians (the type half-watching Ricki Lake reruns on their parents' couch while they're reading this), nothing will.

From her roots in the nearby Twin Oaks commune to belting out songs on the Downtown Mall at age 15, Devon's rise to near-stardom has been intrinsically linked to Charlottesville. She has seemed, at least for the last half-decade, to always be around, playing a coffeeshop here, a record store there, her near-constant presence at least a little taken for granted by our town's residents. But her new album, Upstate Songs, just might turn the heads of the doubters.

Written in Woodstock, New York, the songs on her new album show maturity beyond her years, but also stand distinctly apart from those on her previous two releases. Where the songs that I've heard from her second release, 2001's Long Sleeve Story (Three Word Records), were more along the lines of Fiona Apple, possessing that certain darkness endemic to the Maya Angelou-loving songstress, the new album has a lighter, folkier feel.

This might have something to do with her close connection to Paul Curreri, the country/rock/folk musician (and personal favorite), who co-produced the album with Devon, and is also her label-mate.

On track 2, "Come Comet or Dove", Devon sings in her sweet voice, "The heat had set in as the summer began/ I had just ceased to sing winter's sore tune", as softly strummed country-folk guitar, backed by even softer lead provided by Curreri (the local guitar master, I am convinced), provide an exquisite background.

The melody is long and winding, but that's a strength here rather than a deficit, and Devon shows total control of it at every point. Drums enter the fray on only one track of Upstate Songs, "Should Have Been Snow", a song which harks back somewhat to some of the more rock-influenced pieces on her previous release.

"White Kite at Georgetown Green" is probably the most upbeat song on the album, a lovers' tune (unless I'm much mistaken), both catchy and touching, and one of the few tunes here on which Devon really opens up vocally-and this is definitely a good thing.

So come one, come all, to the Devon Sproule CD Release Concert-the cast will be a good one, and the music-well, let's just say it'll be something you don't want to miss.

- Mark Grabowski

Performing Songwriter
04/03

"Inventive folky Devon Sproule carries on Charlottesville, VA's tradition of great music."

Village Voice - 9/01
The female-folk genre is often a big old yawn, especially when they mix it up with some (usually generic Ani-like) rock. Devon Sproule is a transformed female folkie with a ferocious backing band who've helped her make the jump into rock - her quirky affectations bring to mind Bjork, and forays into the dark bring to mind Michelle Shocked - and, thank god, no ani-bits. Tonight's a record release party for her new Long Sleeve Story. Living Room.

The New Yorker - 4/01

Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule, who are on leave from the fertile Charlottesville, VA, folk-music scene. Curreri, a young singer-songwriter who blends his impressive facility for blues guitar with an exceptional songwriting ability, brings a renewed eloquence to the medium. Touring to support her forcoming release, "Long Sleeve Story," the eighteen-year-old Devon Sproule has noteworthy guitar chops and an undeniably soulful vocal sensibility.