Karen Peris, 'I Would Sing Along'

Karen Peris nestles into the corners of beauty, articulating images and ideas just out of view. The arrival of "I Would Sing Along" follows the last solo album by The Innocence Mission's singer and guitarist by nine years, and here she's joined by a band made up of her husband Don Peris and their children Drew and Anna. Accompanying herself on nylon-string guitar and melodica, the first minute is as gentle as a breeze, capturing a childlike interpretation — singing with elephants "in the low light / in the lowest notes" — of an interview that Peris heard on NPR about the Elephant Listening Project. But then drums, upright bass and strings sweep the rhythm to a windy bluster, in a heart-swelling full-band arrangement that hasn't been heard on an Innocence Mission album in quite some time.

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