Indian Ocean – Album of the Week #11

By markontour, March 27, 2016

There's nothing better than the right song at the right time and so it was for me flying back home over the Indian Ocean, listening to Frazey Ford's reflective song of the same name. The lyrics suggest a sleepless night mulling over the enormity of the world, which well-suited markontour's restless mind as we traversed the globe at 35,000 feet, the Indian Ocean an unknown quantity in the blackness below, Ford's voice simply a reminder of beauty in the world. Sleep came as the track faded out to a gentle trumpet.

Frazey Ford is (or was) one third of the Vancouver trio The Be Good Tanyas, whose 'Ootischenia' is one of my favourite country songs, and Indian Ocean – the title track of Ford's second solo album – occupies similar country/folk/bluegrass territory. I'm not entirely sure what she is singing about most of the time, other than there seem to be a lot of bad men and positive thinking in the face of adversity, but it hardly matters, such is the beauty of Ford's voice. She could sing about doing the washing up and it would sound angelic.

Thus, a few days later, and markontour is still on the move, but now gently floating along the Trent and Mersey canal on our little narrowboat rather than a jet plane above the birds, but still with Frazey Ford for musical accompaniment. That, of course, is the power of a great song – there are lots of right times to listen to it!