Dead Mans Suit

www.jon-allen.co.uk

The singer-songwriter world continues to bring us the average, the overblown, the clones and clowns. And their hats. As it ever did.  But when you hear a set like this new album by Jon Allen, you know it’s always worth giving everything a (ahem) fair hearing. The songs are fresh, punchy and reflective in equal parts, damn well-played and arranged. They are capable of sounding good just with guitar, vocal and harp rack as Jon recently proved opening for Hey Negrita at London’s Borderline.  And in organic approach, edge and tenderness though NOT in any way the vocal phrasing or tone, they do evoke that golden period when Rod Stewart started recording ‘own’ material and song choices with bandmates and other pals. There really is a roots-aware-but-looking-forward feel about these songs and they way they are played. They make you smile, think and tap your feet.

I think I may have seen Jon first January 2007 ?on a bill with Lucky Jim. Since then he has written a load of songs, some of which he has already recorded. The title track of this set has everything – an arcane lyric, crisp rhythm, keyboard counterpoint, drumming time tricks and an excellent vocal all over a strident guitar thrash. It’s catchy, radio and set-friendly and frankly is worth the price of purchase alone.

When I interviewed Jon I asked whether there were covers on the disc as some of the titles looked familiar – ‘Down By The River’, ‘Friends’, ‘Young Man Blues’ but no they are orignals.  ‘In Your Light’ is a lighter and again radio-friendly love song that sound utterly sincere, what a great rasp in the vocal and its captured well here. ‘Happy Now’ is a semi-melancholic almost French melody and worldweary lyric and fabulous chorus which sets Allen’s voice off to great effect against mournful slide figures and steady tambourine. This sort of song underlines the fact that Jon Allen has little in common with the Blunts, Nuttini’s and Morrisons and is working in fact much closer to John Prine or Steve Wynn.

‘Take Me To Heart’ out-Taylor’s James, wonderful melody and arrangement just right and so close to prime-time Faces.  ‘Lay Your Burden Down’ was his Borderline opener and worked a treat ; ‘Young Man Blues’ has a twinkling electric guitar chordal setting and rich keyboard. A haunting gem of a song.  Allen’s Dylan penchant surfaces on ‘New Year’s Eve’ but his tuneful voice makes it a tender ballad of regret and with a Byrds-tinged arrangement that fades too soon.

What Allen is doing is crafting something entirely of his own, from traditional elements. You should catch on to him now, I humbly suggest and watch a major figure get the respect he deserves

Pete Sargeant    www.fairhearing.co.uk

El Cantar De Mio Cid EP

Hero Rhymes With Zero  www.myspace.com/bearsfromlabrador

A four-tracker by an outfit your reviewer knows nothing about, save for a sentence reading ‘English Americana with powerful and intelligent lyrics’. Lily Allen covers of these songs unlikely, then. I have been playing this disc and there are definite tinges of the late great oddball Arthur Lee of mysterious West Coast band Love. The way that electric and acoustic instrumentation is attained and balanced is impressive and the (male) singer is very listenable. If they cut it live, we’d certainly like to hear more. On to the selections included, then.

Opener ‘Chop It Down’ is a confident electric rumbler with dirty-sounding guitars with a hypnotic riff and cooing backing vocals, the drummer sounds a little like that ace bod in The Parlotones. If you dig Buffalo Springfield’s ‘Mr Soul’, have a listen to this ; ‘Me and Bella Star’ is where the Arthur Lee romantic influence seems to come through and mariachi horns just add to this impression.

‘Love’ starts with backwards trickery before a Motown beat pushes a bittersweet tune to the fore with more horns featured. This drummer has the perfect feel for these twisting melancholic odes, in fact the whole ensemble seem to understand dynamics, unafraid to drop back to nothing at appropriate spots. ‘Cruel As the Wind’ is a gentle piece with a hint of detuned chorus in the ghostly slide guitar overlay and distant organ drone.

Something good about this lot

Pete Sargeant    www.fairhearing.co.uk

Can’t Stand Sitting Down

www.rickylynch.com

Twelve original songs brewed form traditional elements and with a strong nod to Bob Dylan is what we have here. Story goes that Mr Lynch was sitting on a pile of songs with no great intention to record them, but was encouraged by those hearing the works to do so  Having a great Irish/Americana voice is a big help of course, but many of these lyrics are well worth a listen. ‘Just Lies Again’ rails against the wrongs visited upon Native North Americans in the past and still hurting. Every nation stresses its commitment to justice of course, but steering the Indians into line for a supposed national benefit caused suffering never properly atoned for. A parallel with Australian history, of course.

‘Down In Mexico’ has a cracked Hiatt semi-whine and tequila bars are evoked with appropriate instrumentation and a light lilt as Lynch creates a sound-picture of this Mexican township.

Personnel-wise, Johnny Scott plays all manner of stringed instruments and harmonica, to boot ; Nicky Scott contributes double bass and guitaron. It’s recorded at The Thatched Cottage on Cork and Rod’s up in Belfast. Very often you’d think you were listening to Dylan with a more tuneful and pleasant voice, with neat chordal sequences to suit.

I like the unhurried and relentlessly tuneful folksy backing, Lynch’s own guitar sitting in the centre, pacing the tunes. The cover art includes a splendid painting by the artist himself, called ‘The Haunting Nostalgia of Twilight’.

As touching a set of guitar-folk originals as you’ll find anywhere, for when you’re in that frame of mind, the highlight being reflective and poetic closer ‘On A Winter’s Afternoon’

Pete Sargeant   www.fairhearing.co.uk

Star Sign Trampoline

www.sundaybest.net www.myspace.com/luckyelephantmusic

Hooray ! An album release that it’s slightly difficult to describe…Lucky Elephant (what would an unlucky elephant be ? One with a bad memory maybe) have been touted as providing sun-soaked melodies just in time for summer which is probably true. They seem to be Isle of Wight-based, but are closer to residents The Bees than Mark King of Level 42.

Thematically their thrust is urban living and the call of the wild (it says here) and the musical setting is a kind of spaced-out pastoral whimsy, not as close to XTC as you may suppose as they don’t have the latter’s angular quirks. Listening to these cuts conjures up animated kids’ TV shows more than anything else and no doubt that’s utterly deliberate.

The ingredients are supplied by these players – Sam Johnson on guitar, Wurlitzer and piano, Paul Burnley on synth bass and harmonium, Laurence Clack on stealthy drums and percussion. Plus French singer Emmanuel ‘Manu’ Labescat on vocals and melodica. The track ‘The Pier’ salutes and ponders upon Manu’s upbringing at the French seaside and the coming commercial tide.

Here we have an unusual aggregation that the mainstream media will be unable to categorise or pigeonhole. Given the band’s lyrical leaning towards coping with the hustle and bustle of urban life and the friction it visits upon the souls of us all, there is something to relate to for the listener. As such this group’s sound is the polar opposite to the frantic city rush of, say Talking Heads and has no arena-postulating DNA in evidence.

On the tracks included : ‘Lucky Elephant’ has a cartoony music-box lope propelled by warm piano and toytown percussion.  ‘Edgar’ has a sprightly guitar figure against a waltz beat and Manu’s Gallic tones appear. A summerday skip soaked in nostalgia and quite charming.  ‘Red Ties vs The Bees’ has schoolteacher piano and a tone poem of a vocal, semi-spoken. ‘Modern Life’ is a light reggae-set but dark sounding chug with trebly guitar figure overlay not a great distance from Bjork, for whom they should be definitely opening shows, on what we hear here.

‘Reverend Tilsley & His Magic Lantern’ sound like a future single that Radio 6 would play.

‘Burn Down The Acres’ as a tune is horribly close to Elton John, you almost expect to hear the voice of self-pity himself coming in ! Thankfully it’s an instrumental…

Much of the melodic work here evokes a lost Eric Rohmer film, none more so than ‘The Beginning’ which does evoke an awkward teenage romance story. Maybe the future will bring us more nostalgia-soaked music ? Depends how grim technology-driven life becomes, I guess.

So..four out of five for a different approach for this group. It won’t be to everyone’s taste but its unhurried fresh-air styling will find it fans

Pete Sargeant     www.fairhearing.co.uk

The Fortunate Three

www.myspace.com/fortunatethree

To launch what their leader refers to as a ‘West Country Blues’ trio in 2008 has to be plain daft, very brave, extremely committed..or a mixture of all three. Fashionability – whatever that is, I always replace the word ‘fashion’ with ‘copying’ whenever I read it – doesn’t matter to us and what we CAN tell you is that this group attains a clear and subtle driving sound in a live setting. They aim at a sound that is all heart and grit but this group sounds  sophisticated enough, to add to that.

Dan Sowerby sings lead and has clearly soaked up Elmore James, Fred McDowell, Taj Mahal (and Jessie Davis), Homesick James maybe..?  So the ghost of Sue and Excello haunts this music and was caught in a live session for English West Country radio station Spire FM, check the myspace. What’s hard to determine is whether a younger audience might to take to this outfit, older blues and roots fans would ‘get it’, for sure. If they open for the likes of, say, Gomez or Imelda May  reckon they might be well-received. Back in the day they would have made a great touring band for a visiting blues artist.

This initial album tells you where they are coming from and adds a couple of originals ; they are working on a set of all-originals which I look forward to hearing.

Drummer Jools Owen and bassman Paul Blake keep the momentum going but don’t fill every space so there’s nothing to overload the sound and more to savour. Kicking off with the precision riffing, patter drumming and cool vocal delay touch of ‘I Wish You Would’, taking in Steve Earle’s ‘Mystery Train Part 2′ and even Peter Green’s ‘Rambling Pony’, the albums rolls along with great slide riffing and no gimmicks on the production.  They even include my own least favourite blues song namely ‘It Hurts Me Too’ which would even be a dirge if Elliot Randall or Roy Buchanan performed it ! I like the Rory G feel on ‘Catfish Blues’ which is as elemental a blues number as they could pick, but performed with such feel the listener just surrenders.

A classy debut, with better to come

Pete Sargeant   www.fairhearing.co.uk

Chain of Rocks
www.roadhousedogs.com

To : Mick Martin – KXJZ Radio, Sacramento

Hi Mick,

Here is that album I mentioned to you, by  the Roadhouse Dogs. This copy is signed to you and if you wish do put a cut or two on your Blues Party radio/internet Saturday afternoon show ( as you know, we can hear that here from 9 pm on Saturdays).

Just to recap, my pal Dave Ruffy of The Ruts told me about a band called The Gas who were opening for them at an early Eighties gig. This trio led by Donnie Burke were explosively creative, the drummer never stopped playing throughout their set and we were blown away. They also made one of my favourite 80s albums ‘Emotional Warfare’, their only English competition being The Screaming Blue Messiahs, for edge.

When Googling the name Donnie Burke to find out what he might be up to, we found he was leading a hardrockin’ London fourpiece playing original rock/blues compositions heavily influenced by his travels in the States, mayhem, alcohol, treacherous women and voodoo. So I thought of you, ha !

I was at the launch of this new studio album last week and the songs already sound like old favourites. I know you dig the old English gems like ‘Street Fighting Man’ and ‘Midnight To Six Man’ so listen to the songs on this set, it ain’t just The New York Dolls who have made an album that plays like a vintage Stones set !

Jason Emberton caught the depth and ferocity, I think. The actual lineup is Donnie on rasping, booming vocals and guitars, Terry Hamid on guitar and vocals (his style being spiky and often like an old Clint Eastwood Western film soundtrack sampled) plus Simon Minney on bass and another great voice.  Drumming like he’s auditioning for Bob Seger is Terry O’Sullivan.

Spooky opener ‘Tom’s Blues’ has an eerie desert-at-night ambience then it’s into the acoustic/electric trucker’s tale ‘No Justice’ feel that power held back to be unleashed ! Burke spits out the story with focussed venom and tears into a harp run halfway through. You’ll hear a kinship with the electric onslaught of The Inmates, Mick. ‘Rumblestrip Boogie’ is a monster boogie, mix this one in with Z Z Top and The Red Devils ? Next up ‘I Came For Water’ as a song could have come from the Pretty Things’ ‘Get The Picture’ album !

As for ‘Drivin’ With The Park Brake On’, this surely IS the contemporary blues lyric ? At a ‘Hitch Hike’ tempo ; Burke truly does have that blue-collar writing leaning that connects. Title track ‘Chain of Rocks’ is a song you cannot resist singing along to when they play it live..need I say that they can do this stuff live, no problem ? Of course they can..as for ‘48 States’, dig that post-Stones swagger and two-guitar raggedy mesh over the bass pump.  If you play this album in a broadcast, I’ll pass any audience reaction you get back to Donnie here in the capital.

When you played with our own band in London, you mentioned to the audience between songs that bands like England’s The Animals originally turning you on to roots American music..maybe it’s about to happen again ?!

Pete Sargeant    www.fairhearing.co.uk

Self-Taught Learner

www.ouramericanmyth.com

A mini-album with six cuts, all self written except a reworking of ‘Ready For The Floor’ which was written by Hot Chip, one of the lamest crews ever to put down their GameBoys and limp into a studio. Already something of a legend in New York, Ms Trullie has recent performed some shows in Europe albeit having to cope with her drummer falling ill, we wish him a speedy recovery.

With a short blonde bob these days and clutching a vintage Stratocaster that makes her look petite, Lissy is so NYC it almost hurts. It’s great when an act can actually sound deeper than their initial impact or image (in this case an ‘out’ city party girl with a fashion scene orientation).

On these selections, Trullie’s choice of Eben d’Amico as guitar foil proves wise. He must be the guy who played bass in Saves The Day, I think. Here, he co-wrote ‘She Said’. It’s a post-Velvets sound that’s achieved here. Trullie sounds like a habitual sulker, but that’s as good a reason as any to write songs, the drummer (Josh Elrod) sounds really on the ball. It’s very much ‘what’s happening in my world’ lyrically, no wider issues are addressed. As I said, SOOO New York….on-the-beat and played straight for the most part which gives a cartoonish feel, comic stories in song rather than drawn in linear monochrome. ‘She Said’ has a driving catchy appeal. The title track, taken at a Cars clipped beat, sounds heartfelt and has sharp chord chops slicing in. Vocally the ghost of Debbie Harry watches from the shadows, nodding at Nico. Again it’s hear-my-angst territory but Trullie’s take on love and regret so valid as anyone else’s. The arrangement does the song justice. Things brighten up for ‘Money’ which is a faster choppy cut with a semi-throwaway delivery, it’s like a ‘Parallel Lines’ outtake.

What makes this set listenable is the great drumming and the care taken with the vocals and chorus snatches. What it lacks is anything that goes much deeper than a personal dilemma lyric fixation but an artist this sussed clearly has the potential to roam further and I hope she does

Pete Sargeant   www.fairhearing.co.uk