Chris Brecht and Dead Flowers. Dead Flower Motel.

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Chris Brecht’s debut The Great Ride was one of my favourite albums of 2008. With a mid sixties Dylan feel and a beat sensibility it was a fantastic example of how an artist can take a genre and re inject some vigour into it. After a fairly lengthy wait here we have his second offering which while not as exhilarating as The Great Ride shows a fine progression while retaining much that was great about the first album. With his band, Dead Flowers getting equal billing here the sound is expanded so that while there are still rambling rockers such as Living Twice as Hard and Devil and with the rollocking ride that is Not Where You Are, a direct link to the previous album Brecht is now using a wider canvas with the sound more expansive with some fine organ and pedal steel throughout the album.
The opening song, Hollywood has some of the ennui and faded grandeur that graced some of the more obscure early seventies LA albums by the likes of Terry Melcher and Gene Clark with the mock orchestral opening perhaps lampooning the string arrangements that were usually present. The song has a fine sense of drama and some fine pedal steel from Ricky Ray Jackson. The pedal steel indeed snakes throughout the album but not in a country sense, much more like the colourings added to late sixties, early seventies rock bands like The Grateful Dead or even the Stones.
On his webpage Brecht ponders the Dylan comparison’s he has evoked stating “I wanted to make a record that sounded like an acoustic social club that toured by freight train in 1922.” However there’s no getting away from the comparison when listening to Don’t take It So Hard which contains the very essence of Dylan in his pre motorcycle crash days. An excellent song. Brecht doesn’t sound like Dylan nor does he even try to but the music and the delivery are in thrall to that time. As good as this is Brecht gets even better with Blue Thunder, a song that is epic and understated at the same time with muffled percussion and crashing waves of sound.
Although the band excel throughout the album the stars of the show are Brecht’s lyrics and vocals. He inhabits a space vocally that is worn and weary, an old head on young shoulders. His words reference writers and poets, are reminiscent of Ansel Adams’ landscapes and find poetry in everyday circumstances.
Why Brecht is not better known is a mystery but it’s early days yet and he has the potential to leap into at least minor stardom. Whether he wants that or not is another matter. On his website he offers trenchant thought on his albums, his music and life in general and overall has a fine handle on his life.
Thoroughly recommended for anyone interested in Americana music.

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Chris Brecht and Dead Flowers-Don’t Take It So hard by paulk

Reviews

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Lucky Bones. Together We Are All Alone

A vehicle for Irish songwriter Eamonn O’Connor, Lucky Bones are now a bona fide band but this album was recorded by him with local musicians in Texas after he met producer Stephen Ceresia while touring. Overall it’s a fine collection that showcases O’Connor’s writing that is poetic to read and sits well within the songs. However the variety of styles on show here leads to a sense that he has still to find his own métier. There is Americana, delivered on the opening title song which is a jaunty road trip with banjo and fiddle well to the fore and Longshot which has a power pop jangle and a driving rhythm. Elsewhere Stand So Tall is a smoky tale of a mysterious femme from New Orleans and has a fine mellifluous guitar sound which is used again on Frank Sinatra, a ballad which verges on the lachrymose and which, despite the stark Carveresque lyric almost blunders into bland James Blunt territory.
Two songs stand out. Magnificent Mistake marries O’Connor’s Irish sensibilities with the cool, laid back delivery of the late Gene Clark to the extent that I had to check to see that it wasn’t a cover of a Clark song. It isn’t. O’Connor follows this up with Unbelieving Eyes, a harrowing tale of a pointless murder, delivered with a passion and the tune of which seems to be based on the Times They are A Changin’. More of this and we would have a much more interesting album.

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Lucky Bones-Unbelieving Eyes by paulk

Hank Woji. There Was A Time.

Back to basics with this one. There Comes A Time is a great example of Texan troubadouring. With Woji channelling the greats including Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Woody Guthrie this is a fine rootsy album that digs into the past with an excellent version of Deep Ellum Blues and brings things bang up to date with The Ballad of Bernie, a song about the disgraced Ponzi fraud felon. From the opening Warm East Texas Rain to the closing My Last Ole Dollar Wolji delivers the goods. Anyone who digs acoustic Earle, John Prine or Butch Hancock will find much here to whet their whistle. Woji has the required (and attractive) weathered voice, the guitars and harmonica sweep all before them and his writing is well above par. The aforementioned Ballad Of Bernie would sit well on a John Prine album with Wolji turning in a humorous and topical observation with some panache. No One To Talk To shows another gentler side, a gorgeous and gentle lovelorn snapshot. Well recommended.

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Hank Wolji- The ballad of Bernie by paulk

Sarah McClurg. Tennessee Rain.

Ms. McClurg is one of those ballsy female singers who hails from a country background but delivers her goods with a rock attitude. The danger here is that Nashville has cottoned on to this and McClurg occasionally dances dangerously to the edge on this album with a few of the songs coming across as so much AOR fodder. Overall however the scales tip in her favour. The title song is gutsy while Little More Highway is a classic crash between a road song and a lost relationship tale. Out of Nowhere has some gutsy guitar and it’s fair to say that throughout the album the guitarists excel along with the legendary Al Perkins on pedal steel. There’s a Rolling Stones touch in the raunchy Home Is Where You Are while Sunday Morning swirls with organ and jumbled guitars to produce a great Southern soul sound. The best song on the album however is the closer Tumbleweed which resembles classic early seventies country rock with piano well to the fore while the guitars grumble and growl.
Ms. McClurg is currently touring the UK and appears at Glasgow’s Grand Ole Opry on February 20th.

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Sarah McClurg- Home Is Where You are by paulk

The Lucky Strikes. Gabriel, Forgive My 22 Sins.

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Concept albums are a tricky business with the number of successful ones able to be counted on the fingers of possibly one hand. Generally the vaguer the concept the better the chances of getting away with it. The Lucky Strikes from Southend have come up with this (their second attempt at a concept, their previous album being based on an account of the murder of blues legend Robert Johnson), a hard luck story concerning a boxer who could have been a contender or so he hoped. Instead he descends into the murky waters of back street boxing, shady bets and gangsters eventually dropping out of sight and into mythology.
A potentially fine tale which tugs at memories of black and white movies, On the Waterfront being the main contender here. Fittingly the band have a big cinematic sound that at times recalls Springsteen and The Waterboys, lurching between urban rock and driving Celtic folk. Unfortunately it all tends to get a bit cluttered and there is a feeling that the listener is almost being bludgeoned, song after song into a punch-drunk acceptance. The primary one two double whammy here are the songs The Fight and The Man With The Golden Arm. Real sluggers both I’m sure that live they would have an audience begging for mercy. The band throw everything they’ve got into the ring to create a mesmerising and pulverising sound. With influences ranging from Gospel, blues, country and cabaret and with Americana and European influences entwined (think of Tom Waits’ The Black Rider) this is an album that requires close listening.

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The Lucky Strikes- Man With The Golden Arm by paulk

Winter Warmings.

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Some more of the sounds that pitched up in the dying, snowlashed days of 2010. A mellow bunch for the most part although room for some fine honky tonkin’.

First up is the appropriately named Rain Perry (well it rains a lot here in winter) with Internal Combustion. Raised by a somewhat wayward hippie father following her mother’s death when Perry was aged just seven (a lifestyle she used as material for a previous album and play) and affected by rheumatoid arthritis which meant she had to give up guitar, she has nevertheless surmounted these obstacles to produce a very fine album indeed. Ably assisted by producer Mark Hallman (who plays several instruments as the Congress House Band on the album) Perry’s songs are very much in the hallowed singer songwriter tradition. Wordy, elaborate, reminiscent of masters such as Randy Newman, Rickie Lee Jones, Dory Previn and John Prine. The music has, for the most part a warm, sultry feel with well-nuanced horns, organ and even at times a sexy slippery seventies funk feel.
It’s hard to pick out any favourites here as the album as a whole feels just, well, nice and perfectly formed. There are three covers with her version of Marvin Gaye’s Let’s get It On perhaps the one fly in the ointment. Although her delivery of this iconic song is fine the original is just too closely identified with its author. No problem with her cover of Bob Segar’s Till It Shines which is glorious. Paul Simon’s Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog after The War is also given a fine rendition and it’s Simon’s mid career style which perhaps best describes Perry’s own muse. The opening song The Compartmentalised Thing could easily sit on a Simon album as could the funky slink of So You’re The Muse.
Elsewhere Perry uses tapes from the Bethel Tabernacle church she attended in her infancy to add colour to the Muscle Shoals sound of Next Best Thing, a powerful indictment delivered with gusto. However Keanuville which portrays a fanatical devotion to Mr. Reeve (almost like an aural equivalent of Scorsese’s The king of Comedy) shows that Perry has a fine, dark sense of humour, something that is carried on to the liner notes which are entertaining to read.
So a very fine album and well recommended.

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Rain Perry-The Compartmentalised thing by paulk

Kete Bowers Road.
Amazingly enough for someone who sounds like a Texan troubadour, Ketes Bowers is a Liverpool native who says he has his grandmother to thank for steeping him in the country tradition. Slow and deliberate with lashings of Dobro and pedal steel there are definite echoes here of Steve Young and Guy Clark. Bowers sings in an anguished, desperate way with no hint of a Liverpudlian accent. Rather he sounds as if he’s made some deal at a crossroads somewhere. With the great B. J. Cole on pedal steel there are no quibbles here about the music, some of the songs however are bordering on the maudlin, Regret being the main offender. However the sparkling quickstep of Gold and the heartfelt Isobel are hearty songs. The closing song which is untitled even has a hint of classic Randy Newman around it although without Newman’s acerbic wit.
Overall a brave stab at achieving an authentic Americana sound that should open some doors for Mr. Bowers.

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Kete Bowers-Isobel by paulk

Charlie Roth is old school with rough-hewn folk ballads and ragtime pickings populating Broken Ground. The 13 songs here are all attractive with Roth’s voice standing out, almost but not quite hoarse, weathered, authentic. The title song which opens the album is also the best here, laced with sublime pedal steel it trots nicely out of the speakers with Roth sounding like a cross between Dylan and Butch Hancock. The pity is that the remainder of the songs fail to impress sounding as they do like numerous others that have preceded them. On the whole the uptempo numbers fare better and according to reviews he is a fine live act. Maybe better to catch him live before buying the album.

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Charlie Roth-Broken Ground by paulk

Next up is Donna Beasley, another ex member of a fundamentalist church, in this case Baptist, who told her it was a sin to listen to rock and roll or go to the movies. Thankfully she’s moved on and on Under the Rushes she has a fine stab at contemporary Americana Nashville music. Cosseted by some fine players and singers including Elizabeth Cook and Tim Carroll Ms Beasley is another sultry alt-country siren. Just what I’m Looking For is a cracking song, tasty guitar licks, banjo and accordion melt into a seductive stew while Can I Get a Ride is Dobro heaven. Heart Like a Wound is a song that Steve Earle could have written and the jaunty Makin’ Love is a honeysuckle rose of aw shucks country music. Overall a fine album.

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Donna Beasley-Just What I’m Looking For by paulk

Last one up is Leyla Fences with Liars, Cheats and Fools. The CD comes with its own rhinestone and bar napkin and a whole lot of attitude. There was a culture of “answer songs” back in the fifties when macho r’n’b and country songs were taken up by feisty females who responded with their take on the male point of view. Here we have a sassy update on the likes of Loretta Lynn or even an aural equivalent of Thelma and Louise. Leyla sings with guts while the band swings mightily behind her. Hard drinking, cheating and yes, truck driving all feature. Hardly Livin’ is a honky tonk hymn to the hard working housebound mother while Getting Over You describes a hard drinking woman who realises that imitating her man’s behaviour is not going to help. Listening to this one wonders how well this would go down in a typical honky tonk tavern but if it was a girl’s night out then Ms. Fences would probably not be allowed to leave the stage.

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Leyla Fences-Gettin Over Him by paulk

First Footin’

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Back from the holidays and here’s a couple of albums that have been sitting on the shelf for a while.

First up is the curiously named The Chymical Vegas Wedding of Joe Cassady and The West End Sound. Cassady, a New Yorker has a voice that is similar at times to that of Butch Hancock of the Flatlanders and at others like the young Mick Jagger. He sings in a laconic, laid-back style with a fine handle on the words that pack the songs here. The opening song Broken Down for example is a textbook example of how to use alliteration with the repetition of the words broken down throughout the song. Elsewhere he muses on the possibility of history reversing in Van Gogh’s Ear and in Make It Rain uses the silver screen and the dreams therein to reflect on the impossibility of achieving them. This is all delivered over a very attractive backdrop. In particular Shu Nakamura on guitar, mandolin, Dobro and banjo shines throughout. For the most part the band play acoustic based rock with Nakamura providing colour. There are a couple of throwaway confections with Rosarch in Love a dead ringer for Six Days on the Road and We all Tour With Elvis done as a sprightly country romp. However Cassady and the band can rock out successfully as evidenced on Holy Hell. The best moments however are the limpid swoons of Make It Rain and Living Ghosts, two songs that are delicate and beautiful with superb playing from all involved, they sound and feel as if the listener is looking at starlight on a clear night.

Website

http://soundcloud.com/paulk-2/joe-cassady-and-the-west-end-sound-pole-dance

Next up is a great slice of swedish Americana in the form of Mack Johhansson’s New Sweden.

Mack Johansson was the vocalist in the superb Swedish band Hyacinth House who despite two fine albums failed to gather much attention and eventually split up. Their first album in particular was a spectacular piece of Americana conjuring up visions of deep running rivers and green valleys with a sinister undercurrent, a bit like watching Deliverance actually. On his debut solo album Johansson digs deeper into that dark underbelly of Americana with a harder edged, blues, gospel and occasional rockabilly sound that has already paid dividends with one of his songs landing a slot in the American Gothic vampire drama True Blood.
Ranging from the driving acoustic swagger of Foot stompin’ Blues to the pumping and almost electronica sounds of Coyote Indian Blues Johansson rarely puts a foot wrong. There are elements of the elemental David Eugene Edwards of 16 Horsepower and Wovenhand here and there but ultimately Mack sounds fairly unique and closes the album with perhaps his best song Ulrike. Dark and doomladen with sinister slide guitar it oozes menace before building to a great climax. Anyone who knows Hyacinth House will dig the inclusion of a new version of New Day Rising, the song that opened their first album. In addition there is a hidden song Northern Highway that pops up after the album proper is ended. A cover of a David Childers song it just about sums up the album with its Americana imagery and the wailing guitars snaking all over it although it is the only song recorded in the USA and with a different set of musicians.
The album title stakes a claim for Swedish singers to sing Americana as it and the cover art refer to a 17th Century Swedish colony along the Delaware River that despite being annexed by the English has left a lasting and present American-Swedish connection.

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Round Up Time

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Adrian Nation. Fall or Fly.

A busy fellow, Adrian Nation seems to spend a lot of time on the road, either at folk venues in the UK or in Greece, strangely enough. His second album is an engaging listen with hazy echoes of Celtic mist and what appears to be a slight Richard Thompson influence. The quality of the players he has assembled here is quite superb and includes Fairport drummer Gerry Conway and the excellent Canadian, Colin Linden of Blackie and The Rodeo Kings. The album has been lauded by our own Iain Anderson on Radio Scotland who chose it as his folk album of the week back in November and that practically tells you all you need to know about it.
Songs like All Our Yearning Moments are classic examples of fine writing and heartfelt playing, warm and engaging, perfect late night listening, the ebb and flow of the album is nicely balanced. There is a strong Celtic influence on The Other Side of The Light and Set Fire to The Sky with whistle and Uilean pipes from Troy Donockley The frenetic opener Don’t Turn Away and the chunky Thompson like Undo The Chains are invigorating while The Heart Beats On with Linden on slide guitar is a stone fox chase of a song. Nation himself is no slouch on the guitar as evidenced on the acoustic piece Five Finger Rapids.
Nothing groundbreaking here but a fine example of a mature songwriter and well crafted modern folk.

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All Our Yearning Moments.

The Loz Netto Band. Bridge of Dreams.

While Blabber ‘n’ Smoke has a deep love and respect for blues music it has to be said that the majority of modern electric blues doesn’t rock the boat here. Going back to the roots of country blues is often appreciated (see the recent Tom Feldman review for example) but it’s far too easy to slip into a copycat mode and few artists have achieved the power and visceral feel of blues since the likes of John Campbell, Rainer Ptacek and Stevie ray Vaughn (all sadly deceased). This Loz Netto chap however is intriguing. With a history going back to London pub rock with the bands Moon and Sniff ‘n’ the Tears (remember the great Drivers Seat) and a cover of Little Feat’s Dixie Chicken on the album it begged a listen.
On the face of it The Loz Netto Band are a typical three-piece blues band. However the opening song Bridge of Dreams is like the soundtrack to a film noir classic, As I said, intriguing. In fact there are no routine 12 bar blues here with covers of Alan Toussaint’s On Your Way Down and Lowell George’s Dixie Chicken owing more to the New Orleans southern soul slink that does fill our heart with wonder. With a nod to Ry Cooder in their cover of Cash’s Get Rhythm the band overall are tight and the fatback guitar sound employed by Netto is a welcome reminder of the great Danny Adler and Roogalator, another staple of those long lost pub rock years. Get hip and enjoy some gumbo here.

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Bridge Of Dreams

Natasha Borzilova. Balancing Act

Winding up this trio is the even more intriguing idea of a Russian born Americana songstress. Natasha Borzilova was born in Obinisk, Russia but now resides in Nashville. Despite her stated original intention of recording an album of Russian folk songs this album consists of her own songs with only the closing traditional Rechka betraying her roots. Taking her cue from this song which deals with three sisters crossing a river and one of them drowning Borzilova writes about elemental links between nature and humanity, highlighted on the superb Water and Wood.
Although traditional in sound there are moments such as the guitar in Balancing Act that add an edge to her crystal clear vocals. The closing Russian song Rechka, sung in her native tongue, is a beautiful and climatic end to what is a fine album.

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Balancing Act

James Overbee The Old Way.

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If the old way was to get a guitar, strum along to some songs and entertain folks, then this album is aptly named. From Kentucky, Overbee has forsaken his band The Talking Machine (their last album, Stayin’ In Touch is a fine slice of Neil Young/Rich Hopkins guitar laden rock) to deliver eleven songs that flow ever so well in a folky manner. Accompanied only by David Vaughn on bass, Overbee sings, plays guitar, drums and blows his harp on a selection of his own compositions that recalls more innocent times. His delivery, particularly with the harmonica present is reminiscent of Neil Young in his folky form, think of Long May you Run and you’re halfway there. Overbee’s voice has an attractive worn way with it and this is heard to best effect on the ballad So This Is What You Wanted, a little gem of a song. There is a naïve, untutored quality in his singing that takes a bit of time to get used to but its used to fine effect on Song For No One and Do You Think I’m A Fool, a pair of songs that reach back to the likes of Woody Guthrie and old time folk Americana. Do You Think I’m a Fool in particular is almost archetypal and one can imagine it having been sung by Hank Williams or Michael Hurley.
The album ends on a high note with the delightful folky froth of Mistaken, a simple song that buskers everywhere should learn. Simple, homespun and heartfelt, if you like your folk woody and plain give it a go.

http://www.myspace.com/jamesoverbeeandthetalkingmachine

The Pines. Tremolo.

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David Huckfelt and Benson Ramsay are The Pines, a duo based in Minneapolis. They are currently touring the UK and appearing in Glasgow on December 1st. On this, their third album they are joined by an impressive band who conjure up a great rootsy sound that resembles Bob Dylan’s recent forays into America’s folk and blues past particularly on Time Out of Mind. Of particular note is the guitar playing of Bo Ramsay (album producer and father of Benson). On Lonesome Tremolo Blues he plays spectacular slide guitar but throughout his playing is a delight while J.T. Bates on drums, James Buckley, bass and Alex Ramsay (another family member) on keyboards provide a sympathetic bedrock.
Vocally Ramsay and Huckfelt resemble Dylan or at times John Prine, their parched voices sound vulnerable, earnest and honest and they draw you in to the songs which by and large are all outstanding. For the most part these are moonlit poems set to crepuscular music. Twilight hymns that tell no stories but which are packed with arresting images, mysterious allusions and overall a sense of alienation and loss. At times one feels as if one were listening to the poems of W. B. Yeats set to music. Even when they play what appears to be a simple love song as on Hearts and Bones the lyrics seem more like a script for a surrealist movie
Last night you were in my dreams/Heart and bones/When I woke up you were next to me/Heart and bones/Blood is red and the sky is blue/Heart and bones/And I’ve never met anyone like you/Heart and bones/Big bright moon over old St. Paul/Heart and bones/I met you when the apples fall/Heart and bones.
There are two cover songs on the album, “Spider” John Koerner’s Skipper and His Wife and Mississippi John Hurt’s Spike Driver Blues are given fairly straightforward run-throughs with the latter reinforcing the John Prine comparison, both sit well in the overall feel of the album but in the end it is the Pines’ own songs which stand out.
This is a tremendous album, one of the best of the year and there is an opportunity to see this duo on their first UK tour as they play in Glasgow on December 1st at the Woodend Bowling Club supported by the Wynntown Marshals (a definite bonus there).
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Lonesome Tremolo Blues

Ian Siegal and Ben Prestage

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While most modern blues leaves Blabber’n’Smoke relatively unmoved those who tread the old time rural folk traditions are always welcome at our door. So welcome then to Ian Siegal whose latest album The Dust is a spectacular rendition of acoustic songs delivered in a muscular fashion. A mixture of covers and self penned songs delivered for the most part solo (although with pertinent and excellent contributions from B. J. Cole, Sam Hare and Nikolai Torp) it seems set to receive similar accolades as his album Broadside named as Mojo Blues Album of the Year in 2009
Siegal provides masterful blues on The Silver Spurs and Between The Stump and The Ground with his guitar sliding and picking well to the fore. However he also branches out into true Americana territory with covers of Steve Earle’s Cocaine Cannot Kill my Pain and Mary Gauthier’s I Drink, a fabulous rendition which sounds as if Kris Kristofferson had penned it. The old standard I’ll Fly Away with pump organ from Torp is given a full throated gospel treatment and begs the listener to join in on shouting Hallelujah.
Three live songs tacked onto the end of the album sit uncomfortably with the preceding tracks but Siegal impresses particularly on the Howlin’ Wolf medley which closes the album, growling and howling he conjures up the spooky dread which was the Wolf. A bonus song, Hank William’s’ I’m So Lonesome I could Cry ties up the album neatly joining up blues, folk and country. If you like catfish Keith, Taj Mahal or even Seasick Steve you will love this.
Siegal is supported by Ben Prestage who might be more suited to the Seasick Steve comparison according to his photos. His album Real Music is an energetic one-man band (with occasional tuba, jug and harp added) foray into the blues. Not the moaning at midnight type but toe tapping, beer drinking juke joint jive. Think John Lee Hooker and Dr. John and you’re halfway there. There are elements of old time vaudeville in Rag and Hesitation Blues while Johnny Cash’s God Is Gonna Cut You Down is given a downright dirty going over.
These guys are touring now, dates

13/11/10 glasgow, scotland THE ARCHES
solo, w/guest Ben Prestage USA
more info »
14/11/10 CARLISLE, UK CARLISLE BLUES FESTIVAL
solo more info »
15/11/10 YORK, UK FIBBERS
Solo, w/guest Ben Prestage (USA) more info »
16/11/10 MANCHESTER, UK BAND ON THE WALL
Solo, w/guest Ben Prestage (USA) more info »
17/11/10 sheffield, UK THE BOARDWALK
Solo, w/guest Ben Prestage (USA) more info »
18/11/10 NOTTINGHAM, UK RESCUE ROOMS
Solo, w/guest Ben Prestage (USA) more info »
19/11/10 SELBY, UK TOWN HALL
Solo, w/guest Ben Prestage (USA) more info »
20/11/10 blakeney, uk HARBOUR ROOMS
Solo, w/guest Ben Prestage (USA) more info »
21/11/10 shoreham, uk ROPETACKLE CENTRE
Solo, w/guest Ben Prestage (USA) more info »
23/11/10 Rochester, UK THE ROFFEN
Solo, w/guest Ben Prestage (USA)
>>>SOLD OUT<<>>SOLD OUT<<<

Ben Prestage God\'s Gonna Cut You Down
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Ian Siegal I\'ll Fly away
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Tensheds Crazy Beautiful.

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They say you can’t judge a book by the cover. Likewise this album. Tensheds (aka Matt Millership) is pictured on the sleeve looking like some Bowie clone from the early seventies and his publicity sheet has him resembling the boa feathered Eno from back in the Roxy Music days. So all in all one was expecting a glam rock rehash full of synths and retro seventies riffs. Instead there was an album that owes more to the early balladry of Tom Waits and at times a touch of a country jaunt
Opening with Go Out On the Weekend Tensheds’ debt to Waits is obvious and even more so on Angel of London where he sings lustily over swirling organ and some great horns. Vocally Tensheds has an attractive husky delivery that works as well in a delicate ballad such as Stains as on the uptempo City of Dreams which is reminiscent of Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance with its saloon bar piano.
While the majority of the songs are piano based there are a couple of songs where acoustic guitar is prominent. Of these Flying Cars (with a lyrical nod to Life on Mars, so the Bowie look might not be so coincidental) is an excellent embittered tale of regret rendered from a cheap hotel room. The closing song, Paradise, with atmospheric guitar and percussion that does recall some of Eno’s ambient music is eerily beautiful, a song about death and memory.
The album was released on November 1st and Tensheds is currently touring.
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City of Dreams