True Compass

Tret Fure launched the most recent phase of her long career with Back Home, her first solo album in 11 years, released on her own Tomboy Girl label in 2001, following her '70s days as a pop/rock artist; her career engineering music at the flagship women's music label Olivia Records in the '80s (with a few solo albums thrown in), and her duo with Cris Williamson in the '90s. True Compass is her fourth album for Tomboy Girl and her eighth overall, and it's one that finds her in middle age and mid-career, as well as in the middle of what sounds like a satisfying relationship. "Look What Love Has Given Me," "True Compass," "My Love for You," and "Nothing Can Harm Our Love" are all celebrations of domestic bliss (the first two unfettered, the last two recognizing the importance of love as a bulwark against life's difficulties), while "Six Beers," which sounds like a fictional account, describes a lonely waitress whose apparently male companion is long gone; "The Storm" provides a weather analogy to the necessity of love; and "Leap of Faith" recalls a love's early days. Fure, singing in her warm alto over arrangements dominated by her acoustic guitar, turns from love to childhood memories and nostalgia on "Summer to Me" and "Small Town," while "32 Years" (in which three women help the aging mother of one move out of her home) and the a cappella "Sail Away" reflect on aging and death. Fure is a keen and feeling observer in these songs. The album's only weak spot is the political song, "Try," which is one of those compositions that sounds like it was inspired by a frustrated hour spent watching Iraq war coverage on CNN: "We can put an end to war/But we must try, try, try, try, try." Otherwise, True Compass is a collection of effective reflections on life's middle passage.