Kleyn, Carol

***Return of the Silkie, 1983’s third chapter in the as-yet unfinished saga of the nomadic West Coast harpist, CAROL KLEYN, offers a slice of the wild and free utopian dream that changed so many lives in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Pure and simple, harp and vocals, accompanied only by scattings of harbor seals and sea lions, this loosely woven concept album includes gentle reminders that life is short—take it in while you can—and, along the way, try to preserve the magnificence of this world for the next generation. Sentiments and music as hauntingly true today as the day they were first sung and recorded. Carol’s lyrics close with: “there’s a storm over paradise and it’s we who decide... just how long we shall live... or when we shall die...”. The 
instrumental that follows, and closes this album, reiterates that message with the cries of sea lions in the background, as the “Silkie” returns, perhaps by choice, to her underwater origins.  
 
Thirty years later, Carol resides on an island in Puget Sound, where she walks amongst the eagles and the sea lions, and is guided by the beauty and the changes she observes along that beach, in the sky and on a distant Mt. Rainier. Her children now grown, Carol’s focus—her music and her performance—return to issues regarding global warming, pollution and the politics interconnected to those perils. Of greatest concern to her today, is that the heat wave we’re now experiencing has only just begun. That being said, there will be, without a doubt, new songs and recordings to follow.  
 
This 2013 reissue marks the debut of Carol’s third album, Return of the Silkie in the digital format, along with newly released photos in the CD booklet and LP insert. The vinyl format is represented by a remastered, newly-pressed LP, packaged in the original album jackets and recently signed, with love, from Carol to you. As George Winston once wrote to her: “I enjoy the new album. I like it the best, just you and harp.” (STREET DATE - 9/17/2013)