Mishka Adams – Songs From The Deep
(self released. CD Review by Alex Webb)

 Vocalist MishkaAdams follows her own star in Songs From The Deep, an album of originals which opens with something akin to pure a cappella English folk, Lake Song, which is beautifully sung, too. Elsewhere the backing is sparse – acoustic guitars, occasional percussion and a few backing vocals – on a set of songs that the sleeve notes say ‘come straight from the heart’.

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Songs From The Deep may have taken Adams far from the jazz territory where she started out – her first few albums largely consisted of standards, and very good they were too – but her writing is high quality and the gentleness of the sound suits her unemphatic vocals. The album inhabits a territory somewhere between Norah Jones and Kate Rusby, and it is hard to resist a song like the gently upbeat More Than Alright.

How Adams’ jazz following reacts to this CD may be interesting – a cynic might suggest she is merely moving from one over-crowded field – female jazz singing – to another one,  the acoustic singer-songwriter world, but though the simplicity of the arrangements does expose Adams’ rather unvarying approach to the material, and some of the lyrics may seem rather inner-directed, her singing is unfailingly accurate, her vocal tone always attractive. 

Songs From The Deep is a heartfelt album of considerable charm.