AIMEE WILSON - UNTO US THE SUN

Aimee Wilson was born and raised in Tennessee and learned to play guitar at an early age. The songs she began writing in high school had by the end of college in 2004 become her debut album, Timbers Fall. For her triumphant new release, Unto Us the Sun, this unique artist draws on diverse musical roots, from Sacred Harp choral music to Persian and Middle Eastern rhythyms and melodic lines, to produce music of fragile beauty and emotional power. Composing on both sitar and guitar, she creates music that bursts with fresh sounds and vivid engagement with one of America’s oldest musical traditions and with a deeply felt spirituality. She has cut her own path through the wilderness, through the rocky corridors of Philly women’s safe havens or the woods and streams of the rural South. Joined by instruments from the Chinese erhu fiddle to the hurdy gurdy, along with a full Sacred Harp-style vocal ensemble, Wilson’s lush debut album ebbs and flows, united by her delicate yet urgent voice and straightforward, poetic lyrical visions. In complex, globally inflected songs, she chronicles nature’s vivid outbursts, our shared struggles for hope and connection, and the paradoxes that birth real joy. Highlights include Thin Shoes and Royalene, both reflecting her relationship with women who experienced chronic homelessness and mental illness, and the title song, which unfolds musically like a sunrise. Nature awakes into an exultant praise, inviting the listener to join in a chorus of mystical rapture. Celebration evokes a sublime dance of nature, and we are invited to join in primal rhythms to celebrate the deep truth of who we are, which is enveloped in grace. ‘My music is a dialogue with God, as I understand him. It’s a way of getting to something more than myself.’ - Aimee Wilson. Highly recommended.