How Laurel Canyon shaped Laura Marling album ‘I Speak Because I Can’
Whether we like it or not, the United Kingdom and the United States are bonded by what many refer to as a “special relationship”. We may disagree on the true meaning of football or lose each other in sarcastic tangents, but ultimately, we share the same appetite for art. After all, how else could Graham Nash’s Blackpool voice effortlessly fit in with his contemporaries to make the sweet sounds of Crosby, Stills and Nash?
While many musicians immersed themselves in the glamour of American living, there’s a case to be made that Nash boldly went where no British musician had ever been before. In the depths of Laurel Canyon and with Stephen Stills and David Crosby by his side, he became one with the 1960s Americana sound, throwing away the idea that it was mutually exclusive to the states.
Of course, the two countries had shared musical sensibilities, particularly through the early days of blues rock, which inspired bands who would go on to spark the British invasion. However, the very fact that music of a particular style was dubbed Americana meant there was an innate connection to the country’s landscape through a particular folky sound.
Of course, wrapped up in the warming harmonies of Crosby, Stills and Nash, vocal intonations become one, and so the very essence of Britishness is perhaps forgotten. But in the case of solo artists like Laura Marling, whose somewhat modest vocal style lends itself to more domestic sounds, how do you embrace influences of Americana without veering into the territory of limp pastiche?
On her 2010 album I Speak Because I Can, she achieved this by combining the rich storytelling of her British experiences with Americana-inspired compositions. Rather than leaning into the stylistic vocal delivery of Americana icons gone by, she remained true to her natural performance and allowed the arrangements to traverse the pond.
Marling explained, “It’s ten songs imbued with a new richness, ripeness and sophistication,” before elaborating on how she balanced her transatlantic influences. “It is also an album marked by its quintessential Englishness. For all its American instrumentation, its shades of Crosby Stills and Nash, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, its American producer, these songs are no pale Americana interpretation; rather, they are tales deeply rooted in England.”
It’s a sonic blueprint exemplified best on the album’s third track, ‘Rambling Man’. A rolling acoustic guitar drives it forward, with a melody Joni Mitchell would have been proud of on Ladies of the Canyon, supported by harmonies Crosby, Stills, and Nash would have envied. But the story being told was anything but fitting for the green hills of Laurel Canyon.
Instead, it was a story of resolute bravery, of women who have grown through the dark days of love and loss. It’s a song brimming with rich storytelling, born from British folk tales of old, and in that very effort, Marling proved she could seamlessly blend the two worlds on either side of the pond.
