Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Country Road
From the cover to the contents this is damn fine album of Americana (with some local inflections) from musicians with real road miles behind them: multi-instrumentalist Rob Sinclair, writer/singer Ann Frances Woolliams and writer/ multi-instrumentalist Bevan Revell.
The Bajanaires – like Gary Harvey who takes a more tough Texas blues approach – are grounded in America because that is where the myths and readily identifiable characters are.
So here – delivered in the weather-beaten vocals of Sinclair and Revell – are a wide sky above the interstate and a girl in a steakhouse bar and grill, Blake Shelton on the radio of the Chevy, a Texas hellcat, rain in Arkansas and a cowman's eulogy.
But here too is Country Road where a rootless character is following the flight of the kereru.
These stories and voices are lived in, the imagery may be borrowed but by virtue of their familiarity they take on a universal quality, often for a world and lifestyle lost more than a relationship gone south.
There is heartbreak here too: on All Because of You Sinclair sounds so battered by life you think he'll never get through the song.
A rare local album of beautifully understated, sensitively played and thoughtful Americana with melancholy, reflective songs which sit comfortably alongside James McMurtry, Willie Nelson, Rodney Crowell and Bill Callahan.
There’s a world weariness here but also a cracked beauty and a haunting quality to something like Country Road which is truly eerie.
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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here
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