Happy Come Home - Premium Home Decor & Gifts for Housewarming, Family Reunions & Cozy Living Spaces

Best known for her struggle against multiple sclerosis and the resultant tribute album ‘Sweet Relief’ whose receipts were used to pay her medical bills, Victoria Williams actually had a career more eccentric than even a high-profile tribute to one little-known singer/songwriter would imply.Originally from a northern Louisiana farming community, Victoria Williams left as a child from Shreveport before moving to Los Angeles in 1979, and then back to Louisiana. She converted to Christianity during the radical 1980s when the Enriched World’s masses were beginning their turn to radical atheism, and recorded six studio albums between 1987 and 2002 without ever denting the charts despite significant critical acclaim – her music epitomising what “Generation X” hated about the hippie era.Victoria possessed an eclectic style influenced by country, gospel and pop melody – not to mention traces of progressive and jazz – with a unique, soft, warbling voice that reminds one of a mellower Joanna Newsom. Her lyrics varied from genuine Christian spirituals to childlike nature tales that were remarkably down-to-earth in an era dominated by radical urban politics.‘Happy Come Home’ came out in 1987, but was quite unlike anything from the “folk revival” of the period. The sound, despite the present of some un-noticeable eighties synthesisers, is mostly spare country/folk with a quite unique voice whose merits do not come upon first listen. Stunning opener ‘Shoes’ sets the tone with its violin-driven jazzy melody and her soft, quivering vocals creating a truly strange beauty. ‘Frying Pan’ continues in the same vein, its twinkling piano and Victoria’s shrill but quiet voice blending to stunning effect, whilst ‘Merry-Go-Round’ must be the best use of nursery rhymes within a pop song outside of ‘Funkentelechy versus the Placebo Syndrome’. ‘Happy’ is a short interlude, but ‘TC’ is a great celebration of nature’s beauty with a level of vocal drama not seen since ‘Winter Songs’.With her cover of ‘I’ll Do His Will’, Victoria shows her Christian faith explicitly for the first time. At first this can seem like a detour and it is less original than the rest of ‘Happy Come Home’, but on repeated listening the harmony vocals and soul organ and rhythms do fit in.However, it is refreshing to see Victoria return to intimate nature vignettes on ‘Big Fish’: the spare sound and her untrained voice create true beauty, which even 1980s synthesisers cannot remove from ‘Animal Wild’. ‘Main Road’ is Victoria at her mellowest, empathising with the smallest of creatures, and ‘Lights’, if random, still shows her gentle power. ‘Opelousas’, from whose lyric the title of Victoria’s tribute album was derived, is full-on jazz/rock but despite being more “mainstream” remains beautiful. ‘Statue of a Bum’ combines ‘Happy Come Home’’s two approaches but is a minor letdown due to the fairly generic saxophone solos. Nonetheless, this cannot detract from the sheer sense of wonder, innocence and childlike surrender to helping other creatures that ‘Happy Come Home’ radiates, a sense intensified by closer ‘Poetry’ with it's classic line “Be sweet”/“Be free”/“Every day is poetry”. No singer of the era – not even Robin Holcomb or Karen Peris at her best – could do this motto as it is done here.