Artist:     Dirk Powell

Album:     When I Wait For You

Label:     Compass Records

Release Date:     9.4.20

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It’s always a true pleasure to catch a new, fresh release featuring US roots master Dirk Powell. Never a slouch or a single-genre sort of guy, Powell is invariably interesting, purposeful and refreshingly original in his output. With When I Wait For You, his latest 13-track offering, Powell is joined by many of his personal friends and folk-Americana-cum-Bayou musical greats including anchored star, Rhiannon Giddens with whom he’s been involved over many years, Sara and Sean Watkins, to UK stalwarts Donald Shaw—the man largely responsible for the excellent TV series and Scottish music festival, Celtic Connections, fiddler, John McCusker and Irish piper, Mike McGoldrick.

With a dozen tracks penned by Powell himself, the album is a reflection of his own loves and brings a delightful, unexpected depth of thinking and contrasting exposure of life’s elements and musical forces, a ying-yang challenge that bursts with simply stunning musical mastery from start to finish. Powell has of course worked with many of the world’s greatest, some startlingly differing in their own backgrounds and preferences from Nashville country legends, Loretta Lynn and Linda Ronstadt; rock and blues giants, Eric Clapton and T Bone Burnett, to folkie fundamentalists as great as Joan Baez. Add modernist, Jack White, to his impressive CV, and the beginnings of where this guy has both been and maybe heading become clearer, always with versatility at his heart.

This is a lovely, shining example of Powell’s place in modern US music, perfectly pitched music that slips down nicely with his vocal delivery never failing or fading while the backing is assured, tasteful and touching throughout. A real pleasure, nothing short of traditional musical treasure.

—Iain Patience