Fallow & Variations

Deprived of touring when she released her breakthrough third album *Fallow* at the start of the pandemic, Blue Mountains alt-country artist Fanny Lumsden didn’t get to explore how those songs would translate live. So she does it here, in a rerecorded mirror version of the ARIA-winning record. Again tapping husband and collaborator Dan Stanley Freeman and producer Matt Fell, Lumsden strips away many of the overt country hallmarks to focus most on rhythm and voice. The nearly a cappella opener “Mountain Song” now floats along like a tender hymnal, only for a playful programmed beat to spike “This Too Shall Pass.” “Peed in the Pool” dials up its rustic handclaps and adds accordion and call-and-response vocals, while “Dig” foregrounds a ramshackle rhythm section and preserves the breakout horn part. The results owe as much to classic New Orleans R&B as they do to country, reinforcing Lumsden’s penchant for cutting boldly against the grain.