9 Song Album
In their new LP “Mercy Drops”, released October 11th, 2025 with Worried Songs (based in New Brighton, UK), the six-piece ensemble Norma Dream imbues defiant tenderness and relentless hope into vignettes of sincere humanity. Based in Northampton, Massachusetts, Norma Dream consists of Norma Jean Haynes (songwriting, vocals, banjo), Will Amend (percussion), Camille Vogley-Howes (violin), Nino Soberon (cello), Eli Liguz (guitar, vocals, percussion), and Madden Aleia (guitar, keys). The skillfulness of the Dream-Team is undeniable. Each note precise, each word deliberate, and yet wholly lilting – instrumental lines rising, falling, pushing, pulling, cocooned in the warmth of the Coriscan summer that inspired them.
From its first note to its last, “Mercy Drops” weaves together centuries of global folk traditions. The album’s opening track presents listeners with a choral arrangement of “Africa”, a 1770 hymn from the Sacred Harp, which introduces the concept of the Mercy Drop itself — pebbles that tip the scales of sorrow toward graciousness, and which bring tenacity to our jubilance. In her writing, Haynes turns each of these pebbles over in her hand, shaping them into earnest poetry that rejects the instinct to heal by denying the existence of hurt. Notably, tracks like “Strawberry Wine”, “Birds of Sorrow”, “Joyous”, and “Un Peu D’Eau” revel in these complexities while providing an immersive soundscape: birdsong, a thrumming clawhammer banjo, the undulating drone of old-time strings, and percussion molded meticulously to the mix. Each time I listen, I find new truth. (Erin Morse)