Single: A Place Called Home (Live) by Ron Jappy and Ainsley Hamill
Multi-instrumentalist and arranger Ron Jappy has recently released a live version of ‘A Place Called Home’, a track featured on his 2020 album, ‘Vinacular’. Jappy co-wrote this song with Scottish singer Ainsley Hamill, who features on lead vocals. I would classify this track as pop-rock with influences of Scottish folk.
The song follows a conventional pop-rock structure of verses, choruses and a guitar solo near the end. My first impression was that the verses and chorus blend together, with little variation in the rhythm and range of the melody. However, the guitar solo in this live version bursts with energy and excitement, giving the track a boost, and is the biggest differentiation between this live rendition and the album version.
Hamill’s voice has a rich, deep tone, with lots of vibrato and Scottish inflections peeping through. Mellow and distinctive, I feel it doesn’t lend itself to this type of pop-rock genre and melody, as the vibrato doesn’t gel with the rock instrumentation; her voice would be more suited to an acoustic arrangement and a melody with more movement - for example, her vocals at the end of the line “this was the place I always knew I never really wanted to go”. These high notes and slight vocal ornamentation are wistful and spine-tingling. Being stripped back with only a piano behind her at this point, sounding more like a folk or soul ballad, allows her voice to shine.
The lines in the first verse are full of mystery and intrigued me: “Looking through the tall glass door/I’ve never noticed you before/Lines in wood are crumbling now/When did you get old?” The rest of the lyrics express a deep, affectionate attachment to home, and a hesitation in leaving.
The two collaborate on another track in ‘Vinacular’, ‘Mairead Nan Cuiread’, featuring Hamill singing a chant in Gaelic. To me, this track comes through musically as more successful, as it has a drama to the arrangement that slowly builds over the course of the song, and Hamill’s voice is in its element, with something more traditional-sounding.
All in all, though both Jappy and Hamill are clearly talented artists, their collaboration on this track didn’t quite work for me personally. In the album, this is the closing track. It works well in this role, rather than as a stand-alone single. Music appreciation is always subjective, of course, but I think that, when working together going forward, pieces more akin to ‘Mairead Nan Cuiread’, tending towards more Celtic-sounding, traditional influences rather than pop-rock, would better showcase their combined skills as a duo.
