Notching Eliza Gilkyson’s 20th album, Secularia offers the steadfast patience that permeates the veteran folk artist’s tunes like a lighthouse to stormy seas. The singer exudes a poetic wisdom few songwriters achieve, and a timeless quality to the album’s secular hymns hearkens Leonard Cohen. Opener “Solitary Singer,” written by her grandmother and father, turns in an almost medieval reel, and “Lifelines” softly swells melody like “The Sound of Silence.” Cameos from Shawn Colvin on “Conservation” and a fiercely quaking Jimmy LaFave in “Down by the Riverside” bolster the meditative calm. Gilkyson offers prayers of thanks and strength (“Sanctuary,” “Seculare”), but calls those powers more from within and around her than from down on high. She recognizes a power in “all the sorrows that made me” balanced with the “beauty that saved me,” and Secularia offers up that strength amid whatever darkness emerges.

***

This article appears in July 27 • 2018.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.