{"id":15935,"date":"2019-01-19T05:30:35","date_gmt":"2019-01-19T10:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=15935"},"modified":"2019-01-19T09:06:48","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T14:06:48","slug":"album-review-norine-braun-through-train-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/19\/album-review-norine-braun-through-train-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Norine Braun \u2013 Through Train Windows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-15936\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/norine_braun.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/norine_braun.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/norine_braun-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/norine_braun-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>There\u2019s long been an appealing character to songs inspired by travel. Award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Norine Braun\u2019s <i>Through Train Windows<\/i> is the latest entry in that tradition; it\u2019s a collection of songs that came about through the artist\u2019s rail travel across her native country as part of the \u201cArtist on Board\u201d program. Intentionally removed from at least some modern conveniences\/trappings (namely a wi-fi connection), Braun allowed herself to open up to other things\u2014people, nature\u2014for inspiration. The song titles more than hint at the subject matter: \u201cI\u2019m Going Home,\u201d \u201cHeading Up North,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m Moving On.\u201d It might be slight overstatement to characterize <i>Through Train Windows<\/i> as a concept album, but there\u2019s a thematic unity to these folky (and folk-rocky) songs that makes them feel like a cohesive whole. Opener \u201cSleeping Buffalo\u201d feels like an introduction; I kept waiting for the intro to end and the more upbeat part of the song to start, but it never did. To be fair, all I had to do was hang on for the next tune. The breezy, good-timing Americana of \u201cI\u2019m Going Home\u201d delivers on that score. \u201cJerkwater Town\u201d has a moody, minor-key vibe and a bluesy feel that pulls the album in a rock direction, though by its end the tune has become a bit repetitive. Huggybear Leonard\u2019s insistent harmonica helps keep that whole on-the-rails vibe in the forefront of the listener\u2019s mind. The stately, elegiac \u201cCrosses and Sweetgrass (Salvation) shows a side of Braun not displayed elsewhere on the record. As a whole, <i>Through Train Windows<\/i> has a character not far removed from Indigo Girls, albeit with a distinct Canadian sensibility and perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s long been an appealing character to songs inspired by travel. Award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Norine Braun\u2019s Through Train Windows is the latest entry in that tradition; it\u2019s a collection of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,30,49,62,65],"tags":[3705],"class_list":["post-15935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americana","category-folk","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-norine-braun","cat-6-id","cat-30-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15937,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15935\/revisions\/15937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}