Haley Heynderickx kicks off her latest, Seed of a Seed, with “Gemini” where her opening guitar lines give more than a tip of the hat to Dylan’s “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” Dylan was born on May 24.
A bold move that initially put me off but I quickly got over my overprotective nature of the sacred texts of early Dylan, besides he probably copped that lick from someone else, and eased into Heynderickx’s own blend of singer-songwriter stuff.
There’s a wide-eyed freshness to Heynderickx’s lyrics, a self searching and questioning I enjoy (certainty may very well be the root of all boredom). This is Heynderickx’s second album coming along about 6 years after her debut, I Need to Start a Garden, which I last wrote about in a “Flashback review” of a 1995 California Audio Labs Alpha Tube Analog Processor where I said, “I’ve been loving Haley Heynderickx’s debit album I Need to Start a Garden for its simple beauty…”
Seed of a Seed, released on Mama Bird Recording Co. earlier this month, isn’t as simple with drums, trombone, electric and upright bass, electric guitar and cello joining Heynderickx’s fluid finger-picked and strummed acoustic guitar—she grew up in a small town in Oregon where the only guitar teacher only taught bluegrass—and fresh clear lovely sung/spoken vocals but its beauty runs deeper with twisty tales navigating a simple complex life.
From “Seed of a Seed”:
‘Cause we all need
A sense of lore sometimes
Like I need a silent mind
In a consumer flood
And if I’m lucky
Maybe a glass of wine
And if I’m lucky
Maybe a hand next to mine
