by Ljubinko Zivkovic (@zivljub)
When you venture into folk music as a singer/songwriter, there are basically two ways to approach it. Keep not only the spirit of the original folk music, but also stick to the source of its origin, basically play it safe. The other broad approach is to keep just the spirit of original folk, but then bring in multiple sources of origin, add elements of other musical genres and let your imagination roam. The first approach requires excellent musical knowledge and technique. The latter, not forgetting the first method, also requires a lot of imagination and a very personal approach to folk. Eva Louise Goodman, who works under the moniker of Nighttime, likes the latter approach, and she presents in its full glory on her latest album Keeper is the Heart.
Throughout the album, and particularly on the tracks like “The Way” and “The Sea,” it is evident that Goodman, who resides in upstate New York, loves sixties and early seventies variations of British folk, particularly its psychedelic inclinations. Goodman follows in the footsteps of the folk experimentalists of that time like Pentangle and Vashti Bunyan. Yet, as someone who is American, Goodman adds elements of American folk, or combines the two, like on “Spring, You Come Again”.
In a number of ways, like on “Garden of Delight,” Goodman takes a similar approach to folk as Melody Prochet, aka Melody’s Echo Chamber. That includes the use of instruments more associated with psych, like mellotron, or studio techniques like manipulated tape speeds. Goodman takes the same free-spirited approach to her lyrics with lines like “Lift the veil of all of this hate/To see the fear at its base" and "We’ll follow the fates across the great expanse of time/To the source of the light within our mind.” As Goodman herself puts it, “What do you find when you look inward, seeing beyond, past your fears, to your heart's true desires?”