Laura Veirs: when summer can be just a dream

"July flame'' is a rare type of peach that only grows in the summer. Laura Veirs, a singer-songwriter from Portland, has entitled her sixth and most recent album with those two words. July Flame (2010) is a chant to summer. I've always thought of folk as one of the most genuine genres of music. It's simple and sincere. You just need a guitar, a voice and something you long to express. However, when you listen to July flame, Laura Veirs takes all of that to a different level. She has arranged her songs into what a lot of critics have described as "dreamy indie folk". You can hear violins, clarinets and saxophones, all instruments cleverly selected to bring the magic that summer songs have to have. July flame isn't a nostalgic album. One could almost say it's a philosophical one. It reflects on the metaphor of summer. On how you miss it when you don't have it. But it also sings to the certainty that it is only a matter of time to have it back. The way in which Veirs expresses this type of maturity is what makes of this a great album. This is the record you have to listen to in the winter, or when another type of coldness arrives in your life. All of those types of eventualities you fear won't end.

This is the video for July flame