Diane Coll

Up from the Mud

 Happy Fish

Atlanta-based folk singer-songwriter Diane Coll brings us her fourth release, ”Up from the Mud,” which follows much in the vein of her previous “Old Ghosts,” which we covered on these pages. Understanding that Coll is a mental health therapist gives you the lens you may need to approach and appreciate her songwriting. This is an album, like the last one, that begins as dark, moody, and introspective but it grows brighter in the second half, representing the healing that occurs after one battles and eventually overcomes relational trauma. As per the last album, the accompaniment is spare and is mostly hauntingly ethereal behind co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Groover’s ambient soundscapes, cultivated in partnership with guitarist Jonny Daly. Coll is a willing participant in this sonic vision, playing acoustic guitar, harmonium, keys, and hang drum in addition to her lead vocals. Barry Watson is on bass for two tracks and “Fool’s Gold” features the cellists Erica and Daniel Holloway.  There is also a five track fully instrumental ambient album performed by Coll, Daly, and Groover entitled “There Is Light.”

These ideas of the light and dark, pain and joy, struggles and celebrations are certainly fodder for many songs through the years but Coll, who has a ‘day job’ role of guiding people from the so-called muck to a place of contentment, can speak to these themes far better than most. Speaking about her song and single, the closing hymn to hope on the album, “All Is Well,” she said this to Americana UK – “Shadow and light exist together, always. To embrace that one does not exist without the other, and that pain and joy are an inevitable part of the human experience, can be very freeing and deepen inner peace. This song gives voice to the dark and the light that can be seen as one journeys up from the mud to healing.”

With that being the closer, we start in the opposite place, “Up from the Mud,” a repetitive, at times droning, instrumental track with rattling percussion that seems to symbolize just being stuck. She begins “Eyes” by singing “Open up your eyes
We can stop the wave of all those lies” going on to add empathy and shared experience – “You will see what I see over time.”  At this juncture in the journey though, such words may ring a bit hollow so Coll goes into depth about the resolve and commitment needed to begin to heal in four more songs highlighted by “Devil’s Got Nothing” and “Body Don’t Lie.” Yet it’s “Girl I Used To Know” that is especially chilling. In the first verse she speaks about the gentle girl who transformed into a tortured soul with these poignant lines in the bridge – “Like a wild horse that’s bucking everyone about/With her flailing we could not get near to pull the splinter out.”

The heavy section begins to dissolve with the seventh track, “No Wasting Time,” aiming for strength in the second single, “Sugar.” Therein lies a plea for kindness, so important in these divisive times where kindness no longer seems to be a valued trait –  “these cranberries are tart on my tongue, though they look fine … can you try to find it in your heart this time and give a little sugar for me.”  “Fool’s Gold” is about temptation and the will to resist retreating to the dark side. Yet, as we move through these stages in an effort to heal, it takes time to build confidence as we hear in “Into the Wild” – “My trust is scarce, do I dare to fly into the wild?”  These are very gentle songs musically, mostly just Coll on her acoustic guitar with little if any adornment, saving layered vocals in some spots.  Percussion imbues “In the Moonlight,” with the protagonist still expressing fear and a need for a companion to walk that road, which becomes deep and introspective on “How Far It Goes.” Said another way, it becomes an ode to freedom, to having broken through to the realization that real love is possible, as conveyed in “Today.”

She brings it all to a uplifting finale in the previously mentioned “All Is Well” with this gem of a lyric – “Shadows cheer so clear/“Light is here!”

This is indeed therapy through music. Few can convey the emotional struggles better than Coll. She’s done it again.

– Jim Hynes

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