(August 14, 2019) In one sense there is not much action in Katherine Penfold’s video for “Far Away,” her new single. There is her face centered in the middle of the frame with a grey hooded shirt that covers her head. There is Penfold’s angelic voice, the music and the lyrics. And in this case, that is plenty because that face, that voice, the simple yet lovely instrumental arrangement and the story told in those lyrics are worth one million words.
The video fits the song “Far Away” perfectly because the both insistently whisper the word intimacy. The close up of Penfold’s easy on the eye visage, along with her style of singing that is perfectly suited for a tune that has as its topic a long awaited and missed conversation between two people sharing space for the first time in a long time.
Penfold herself is that walking contradiction that reminds us that we cannot judge a book by looking at the cover. She grew up in Novia Scotia and that means that she is a hearty soul who is perfectly at home outdoors in harsh environments. She counts motorcycling, skateboarding and woodworking as hobbies. However, Penfold is classically trained vocalist as her range, phrasing and precise diction makes perfectly clear.
“Far Away” also shows her as an artist who has that rare to use her life experiences to craft four minutes of musical sanctuary. She tells the story of the song’s creation: “Far Away is a tune about the bittersweet aspect of a long-distance, traveling relationship. My partner and I had split up for a while and then, through totally random events, re-met and got back together. In that new phase of working it out we wanted to be around each other all the time, but our work schedules were still the same as before we split, so it was these 1 or 2 days of awesome togetherness and then not seeing each other for a week. We had to figure out anything we could to keep each other involved in our lives, even when we were traveling.”
Check it out here.
By Howard Dukes