Black Flowers, Vol. 4

Canadian singer/songwriter Lynn Miles bases all of her tunes for this double-CD set on the lonely times, lost love, and downhearted feelings that stem from personal experience. It seems she expresses that fish-out-of-water state of being universally acknowledged by all thinking human beings plagued with emptiness. Yet this is not a blues-based music, but a folkish, introspective, storytelling type of sound so deeply ingrained that only she can express or experience it. Playing mainly acoustic, or occasionally electric guitar while singing, Miles has a crystal-clear approach to these songs, with little or no mystery involved, but instead a definite message of solitude within isolation. In a distant viewpoint, songs like "Map of My Heart," replete with echo and reverb guitar, the rambling "I'm the Moon," with a reference to a cheap hotel, and the faux denial of "Over You" as she's heading for New Mexico, show Miles in an escapist mood. There's a more hopeful sentiment in spoken phrases during "When My Ship Comes In" and the midtempo "All I Ever Wanted," while Miles plays harmonica for "Eight Hour Drive," even sounding Bob Dylan-ish during the more connected "Flames of Love." On occasion she puts aside the guitar for a piano, in Joni Mitchell-type reflection for "The People You Love" or "You're Not Coming Back." Honest to a fault, Lynn Miles wears her heart on her sleeve 100-percent of the time in a frequently painful but forthright musical portrayal of her soul. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi