"soulful, twangy/strummy Americana infused with classic folk-rock and lined around the edges with luminous country"...
... "Made Of Stars is a wondrous affair indeed, boasting crystalline, radio-ready sound and brimming with the kind of palpable emotion that you rarely find on contemporary recordings"...
" The album builds upon the strengths of 2006's Mockingbird, which earned her comparisons to Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson"...
"Throughout, it's the Spring voice that keeps you circling back to the tunes. ...it's instantly familiar, and intimate, in the best possible way. Even during these cold, bitter days of winter, that voice will crack open the walls of your heart and bring to it a warm, lasting glow."
Blurt - USA - (Blurt replaced Harp Magazine) Read full review
"...named a top singer-songwriter by Gerde's Folk City back in the mid-70s, and subsequently recorded with an array of musicians ranging from Gene Parsons (The Byrds) and Tift Merritt to Marshall Crenshaw and Jack Lawrence (Doc Watson)..."
"...it's her tender, heartbreakingly beautiful phrasing ... where her intensely yearning croon may sound a bit of a dead ringer for Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmins (please don't take that as a negative cos it ain't!) but wow, what emotion is conveyed ...through the album Sally's glorious vocal work is an outstanding constant...Sally's accomplished, even-toned and natural contralto, though earthy and characterful, doesn't make a ready comparison with any other singer in particular."... She has her own voice...
"The recording, though polished, is wonderfully delicately balanced, and there are so many telling details in the supporting musicianship whether utilizing the simplest of settings or opening the texture out gently into chunkier soulful or alt-rock territory; all credit to Ted Lyons there. Hey, this is a record to rave about for sure"
Folk and Roots - United Kingdom Read full review
” ‘Made Of Stars’ is one of the most accomplished and emotional albums you are likely to hear this year, it is intoxicatingly beautiful. Simply put, this is an album to treasure”…
Americana UK Read full review
“Made of Stars is a quiet Americana classic, thoughtful and intelligent, and it seems that Sally Spring was born for this.”
No Depression Magazine Read full review
“Sally delivers a very successful rich recording with beautiful variations and absolutely no weak parts. A wonderful production! ” Real Roots Cafe – Netherlands Read full review
“To hear Sally Spring’s music is to feel it.
With her beautiful, experienced voice and her powerful lyrics, Spring has a unique talent for channeling emotion through song. Whether through a car stereo speaker, from the stage at a crowded festival or across the room during an intimate coffeehouse performance, Spring is an artist who connects soul to soul with her audiences.” Go Triad – Greensboro, NC Read full review
“she (Sally) was an instant poster woman for Americana just by doing what she’d always done.”…”as if Linda Thompson became a Piedmont rocker”… “and Spring’s originals like “Lake Pontchartrain” (co-written with Peter Holsapple) and “Summer’s End” lean toward the lovely, making another of her own, “Beautiful Ride,” a fitting two-word summation of the entire affair.” IndyWeek.com Read full review
“There’s a reason singer-songwriter guitarist Sally Spring is No. 1 on the Americana radio charts in Europe (and topping all other similar charts in the U.S., as well)-it’s because she is so evocative of some of the greatest British female folk singers like Sandy Denny, Linda Thompson, and the early, warbling Marianne Faithfull (the moody blue “Mattie” marries all those artists in the unique voice that is Spring’s)…Her version of Johnny Cash’s I Still Miss Someone is extraordinary, with its quivering guitar, straight out of a David Lynch project; she slows it down Cat Power style, and can proudly stand up to any other artist who has recorded this song, including greats like Joan Baez and Dolly Parton….” examiner.com Read full review
“Anybody who knows and loves Sally Spring’s music will welcome the opening bars of Beautiful Ride, the opening track on this new album, like an old friend. If you don’t know her music, I’ll tell you that from the first bar you’re dropped gently into the warm sound of her band – a balanced sound, built around Rich Feridun’s eloquent acoustic guitar – and then Sally’s voice comes in, a rich alto with a touch of vibrato seemimgly ever-present, that sounds like the voice of all the wise women who ever were, assured and authoritative.”
“…through her gritty and, at times deft approach works up a lot of passion and better still an engaging character to her singing. Of the kind that has the listener thirst for more.”
...”(Sally’s) composition ‘Mattie’ with Celtic roots possesses a smouldering rhythm as folk and rock merge. It is not too dissimilar to the music of an early 1990s Marianne Faithfull —only Spring’s voice has more character and sounds heaps better!”
...”(Sally) digs deep to come up with her best effort ‘Boys In The Cornfield’. It has her revert to a spare, stripped down acoustic approach with Maby, Lyons (percussion), Caitlin Cary (fiddle) featured alongside her own acoustic guitar. As a rich, nostalgic feel of the American South is brought to the album, plus you have her terrific vocals. Her song speaks passionately of a tragic period in America’s history the Civil War as brother fought brother as they do what they were told.”…”the best song bar none on the album Spring makes full use of her vocals to weave a web set to snare the guilty and innocent alike.”
“A captivating performer”
—Variety – NYC
“..striking results can be heard on Mockingbird …first-rate compositions …beautiful vocals”
—No Depression
” While it’s the gently piercing clarity of Sally Spring’s voice that lights up Here Come The Memories and Floyd Johnson, the emotional heat she generates on Ain’t No Ash Will Burn is white-hot. …the songs reached deep inside, were beautifully layered and had something to say.”
—Americana UK – (nine stars!)
“Blessed with a full voice reminiscent of Sandy Denny”
—Harp, February
“The real show-stopper was Sally Spring.”
—Sing Out
“Spring’s rich, slightly smoky voice (which suggests the clarity of Sandy Denny mixed with the sweet earthiness of early Marianne Faithfull) is a surprisingly malleable instrument”… a “wonderful voice” … and “she’s as gifted a writer as she is a performer”
—allmusic
“her mature, full, warm and clear feminine voice… reminds me of … Emmylou Harris, Natalie Merchant or Tracy Chapman”
—Das Rock, Germany
“…her soulful, sweet and appealing voice… In short ‘Mockingbird’ is one of the best CD’s I’ve heard recently from an American songwriter”
—Massimo Ferro, Radio Voce, Italy
“Held in high esteem by fellow musicians, she (Sally Spring) is joined by Gene Parsons, Tift Merritt, Marshall Crenshaw, Caitlin Cary, and Fred Smith but at no time does the veteran songwriter take a back seat. …it is Sally who takes centre stage with her distinctive vocals and commanding presence”
—Maverick, UK
“very intimate and beautiful”
—Melodic, Sweden
“…her voice has that darkness and emotional complexity that reminds me more of June Tabor than any American singer. Her phrasing is fantastic…”
—Net Rhythms, UK (10 stars!)
“Spring’s Eternal…Sally Spring one of Winston-Salem’s most distinctive and distinguished musicians…who is making amazingly fresh music.”
— Relish Winston-Salem, NC