“Sage” by Michelle Qureshi is a collection of intimate compositions with peaceful and sweet melodies presented in a finger style manner on the acoustic guitar. These nine tracks consist of tenderly played compositions. From the playful opening “Skipping Stones” to the impressionistic “Watercolors” to the closing “Messengers” which presents as the most driven piece and the only track to feature slide guitar, the music is fresh and crisp.
The album also includes a single released this May, “Tender Side of the Moon”, which was placed on a Spotify Curator’s Editorial playlist. This album’s style is reminiscent of the 2018 release “Short Stories”, yet pushes forward toward a new, wiser introspection of the guitar.
With “Sage”, Michelle marks her 14th album of music that spans the genres of new age, ambient, neoclassical, world and modern fingerstyle guitar music. Three albums and two singles were released on the Heart Dance Records label. In the first half of 2019, Michelle twice re-distributed her back catalog of six albums published by her label Music as Metaphor, only to meet with much consternation.
Ironically, these albums have now been correctly redistributed, along with her newest work, on CD Baby, the very platform she originally began using in 2012. Suffice to say that “Sage” is a title rich in symbolism, having grown wiser in the safe-guarding of her own work and referencing the use of burning sage sticks to ceremoniously cleanse the past of certain energies to bring more and more music to light!
Get the album on Bandcamp.
For more music samples and information, see michellequreshi.com