Starting on low-slung electric guitar chords and and a relaxed backbeat, Annie Keating digs out a wonderful sound on ‘Marigold’, taken from her 2021 album Bristol County Tides, her eighth full-length.

I like the way there’s a toughness to the sound of the track, that bluesy country rock that Lucinda Williams harnesses so well, but it’s balanced by a really nice melodicism in the chorus and the wistful sentimentality of the song – a kind of soulful swagger.

Bristol County Tides tells an evocative story of love, loss, and finding what matters most in uncertain times. The album cover offers a painting of the road the artist and her family retreated to during the early months of the pandemic (in Bristol County, Massachusetts). The inspiration for all songs was born there, amidst the rising and falling tides in an idyllic farm to coast New England town, where deep connections were forged amidst times of isolation.