I first came across the songwriting of Ross Lorraine on Day Dawns, the wonderful debut album by Melissa James (reviewed in Jazzwise 166, August 2012) which featured 11 of their beautifully crafted, co-written songs. Bringing together a dozen of Lorraine’s songs performed by a dream vocal line-up of Liane Carroll, Sara Colman, Gwyneth Herbert, Luca Manning, Claire Martin and Ian Shaw, there are some similarly great things on Heart of Mine. A moving paean to friendship, ‘I’m By Your Side’ is touchingly sung by Ian Shaw and Claire Martin. Cast in a doleful A minor, Luca Manning’s incantatory interpretation of ‘We Will Sing Again’ immediately lodges itself in your heart. Channelling James Taylor to telling effect, best of all is ‘Pull You Back’ which features Sara Colman’s gorgeous lead vocal plus delicious three-part harmonies from Colman, Herbert and Martin. Engineered, mixed and mastered by Chris Traves for Soup To Nuts Productions and co-produced by Martin, Lorraine and Traves, the entirely empathetic accompaniment is provided by guitarist Mike Walker, pianist Rob Barron, bassist Laurence Cottle, and drummer Elliott Henshaw.