Orit Shimoni - Lost and Found on the Road to Nowhere (2018)

Orit Shimoni is a wandering spirit, a restless traveller who carries her songs and guitar across the Americas and Europe, riding the rails or a Greyhound bus and happy to lay her head down wherever she finds herself, even if it’s only on the couch of a promoter or a fan. Hailing from Canada but unafraid to embrace her Hebrew roots Shimoni first came to prominence as one half of Little Birdie, with her voice compared by some to that of Margo Timmons or Neko Case. Since then she has recorded several solo albums which in themselves reveal her restlessness as she has recorded at home and in Berlin along with other locations.

Lost and Found on the Road to Nowhere nods to her nomadic life in several ways. Many of the songs reflect her life on the road and it was recorded in the home studio of Martin van de Vrught in the Netherlands where Shimoni stayed for several days. Produced by de Vrught (who plays guitar, lap and pedal steel, banjo and percussion) the album is both stark and expressive with de Vrught’s contributions almost spectral allowing Shimoni’s wonderful voice full rein to shine. At times the duo approach the dreamlike soundscapes of Mazzy Star with atmospheric and ambient guitar effects willowing throughout the songs although Shimoni is perfectly capable of delivering a straightforward singer songwriter narrative as on the impressive She’s Smarter Than Me on which Shimoni plays the accordion offering the song a fine continental feel, the song inspired, Shimoni, says by de Vrught’s wife. As she reels off superior songs such as When You Are a Wanderer and So Lucky one is reminded of what a fine writer and singer she is with the latter an excellent low-key thank you letter to her fans and friends. She really approaches a zenith in the gospel-tinged Bound which has de Vrught and Shimoni cloaking the song in a delicious rootsy mix with skeletal banjo and lonesome harmonica, a song just waiting for a southern gothic TV series to pick up on.

Finding inspiration on the road Shimoni offers us her Song For Townes, written in a bedroom in Eindhoven in which Van Zandt slept and which has been preserved as such by the owners while Hallelujah was written when she discovered an old purse she had left on her last sleepover which had the makings of one roll up cigarette within it. Aside from her songs of wanderlust Shimoni sings of Jerusalem, a city to which she is bound from childhood but the relationship is now more complicated by the current situation there. Drifting meanwhile is an almost biblical search for some sense of all that goes on and recalls Shimoni’s compatriot, Leonard Cohen. The album closes with what is almost a manifesto of sorts as Shimoni explains that her sad songs are rooted both within her and within the sorry state of the world as she sings, “Truth is ugly, I’m well aware and I’m stuck here and forced to stare… I know people would rather dance to some up-tempo song of romance.” By the end, one is convinced that Shimoni is an excellent teller of tales who should be more widely recognised as she roves around baring her heart.