Silver Skies - Sara Storer

Lucy Tyler | 29 May 2008

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Silver Skies
Sara Storer
EMI
2008

For a country music singer, Sara Storer is surprisingly easy to listen to. Her unique brand of country music is not the boot-scooting, banjo twanging stuff of nightmares. It is accessible, even enjoyable country music.

Storer’s sweet, distinctly Australian voice is juxtaposed by the sometimes-confronting lyrics. And in this she has captured the essence of country music.

Each song is driven by a story, a tale that needs to be told. Some of these stories are fun, lighthearted ones, which lift you up as you listen to them. Long Live the Girls is one such song. The sweetly nostalgic song is a celebration of femininity and confidence. “They dance with no fear and everyone cheers.”

The opening track, Sitting Here With Fay also runs in this vein. “She makes a wind chime and I make a song rhyme”. In this part of the world there are no worries, life is whimsical and fun. At the same time, there are no challenges. Everything here is easy.

At the other end of the spectrum, songs like Land Cries Out deal with the themes of loss and death and, in particular, suicide.

Land Cries Out is a story of a desperate man driven to desperate measures - “Bang! He takes it all away”. Storer deals with this issue in a way that makes it startlingly clear exactly what is missing from the character’s life. The loss of hope that drove this man to such desperate measures makes it clear just how much humanity needs God, and offers a glimpse of what a life devoid of the hope that comes from salvation is like.

Here, Storer has hinted at the need for hope which is characteristic of all humanity. Yet she leaves it there, at just a hint. It would be nice to see her examine this more, to really delve into what it is that her characters are missing.

Sara Storer has delivered a diverse album that is sure to please. Silver Skies is an album that makes you think about what makes life special and important. Storer has hinted at this in several of her songs but doesn’t take it any further than that. Hopefully, we will see a deeper examination of the importance of having hope in her next album.