Catherine Howe's jazzy, orchestral balladry drowses in a British field somewhere between Bryter Layter and Ask Me No Questions. A true rainy-day affair, What A Beautiful Place is the Brit folk autobiography of Howe, aged 20, one that appeared only fleetingly in 1971. Most artists are too young for memoirs by reaching the age of majority, but What A Beautiful Place is a prodigious effort wrought from the melancholy ruminations of Howe's early post-adolescence. Twelve songs unfold like a classic bildungsroman, beginning in the smoke-stained industrial county of Yorkshire, transformed by the electrified creative landscape of mid-century London, and retiring to the warm pastoral bliss of the county of Dorset on England's southern coast. Produced by noted jazz pianist Bobby Scott, the LP - oft-mistaken for a concept album - was available for just a summer month of '71, and vanished utterly after Reflection Records' shuttering later that year.
