Harmony James

I've been such a slacker, but I have good excuses ... No, really! And I just wish I had more time to write on this blog. I'm making a special effort today, though, because I'm so incredibly excited about Harmony James's album Tailwind, which has become an immediate favourite. It starts out sounding like a 'normal' country album - there are the usual guitars and fiddles. The songwriting is not complex - the themes aren't new - but there is just something there that makes this album superior. It's probably got something to do with Harmony's voice: mature, both sharp and warm, direct and honest. She expresses emotion and enunciates clearly, and they're both underrated traits in singers. It was her voice that first hooked me when I went to her Myspace page, and even though the album didn't grab me immediately, by the third rotation I was hooked.

Tailwind also offers a lot of value for money - 15 tracks plus a bonus, the wistful, lovely 'Call of the Currawong'. The title track is a standout - and the winner of the Country division in the 2008 International Songwriting Competition - although the album is lousy with standout tracks.

According to her website, Harmony doesn't yet have solo shows at Tamworth 2010. Hopefully that will change.

www.harmonyjames.com

CD review: Landing Lights by Felicity Urquhart

Felicity Urquhart’s last record, My Life, was a very appealing collection of ‘pretty’ (not a pejorative) pop-country songs and some more rocking material. It was a very good record, but in light of her most recent release, Landing Lights, it’s clear that My Life was Felicity doing what was expected of a country music singer-songwriter at that point of her career in Australia (or the US) – because, while there was a lot to like on MyLife, Landing Lights is a superior album.

Landing Lights is a satisfyingly eclectic gathering of songs that Urquhart has co-written with one usual suspect (Randy Scruggs) and some new co-conspirators. Karl Broadie’s fingerprints are all over ‘So Go On’ – an up-tempo toe tapper that has me smiling every time I hear it – while Kim Richey brings her melancholy bent (and some vocals) to ‘All Good Fun’. The unexpected collaborators include Nick Barker and Michael Spiby; the tunes co-written with Barker, ‘Two Wheels’ and ‘Bed & Breakfast’, are undoubtedly the ‘tougher’ songs on the album. Urquhart’s two co-writes with Robert Lee Castleman, ‘Little Cricket’ and ‘Time for a Change’, are complex, delicate and dark songs. The title track is a masterpiece of wistfulness and yearning.

There are only two ‘radio songs’ – ‘Girl in the Mall’, written with Mark Seymour, and ‘Ernie’s Daughter’- but I only call them that because they fallen some melodic and lyric conventions that will appeal to the traditional country music listenership.

Through all the different styles of songs - the tales of life, love and loss – soars Urquhart’s beautiful voice. When I first saw her play live I couldn’t get over how amazing that voice is, and couldn’t understand why more people didn’t know about it.

Landing Lights is more than the sum of its very fine parts. While I find myself listening more to the sweet-melodied songs – coincidentally, the even-numbered tracks – there’s not a single song on this CD I don’t like. The album is the mark of a confident, talented performer and songwriter who should find a big, big audience.

www.felicityurquhart.com

The great silence

I've been such a bad blogger. But I've had reasons! I was writing other things, for one. And I didn't go to Tamworth this year, so I have nothing to say about it. But shortly I will have things to say about:

• Felicity Urquhart's new album, Landing Lights
• Shane Nicholson's newie
• Caitlin Harnett's EP
• Karl Broadie live

and possibly some other stuff. Now I just have to remember to write those posts ...

Torchsong Country Soul Band

Last Sunday I saw a divine (relatively) new country band at the Botany View Hotel in Newtown, Sydney. The Torchsong Country Soul Band are a six-piece outfit - five men and one lovely girl singer, Maree Byrne - and they are doing a very nice line in country, bluegrass, blues and folk. It's clear that this is a 'musician's band'. All players were accomplished and obviously serious about what they do. It showed in the quality of their music, which was better than most acts I've seen at Tamworth or, for that matter, at the Botany View. They're not playing many gigs at the moment - hopefully they'll get a guernsey at next year's Tamworth Festival - but it would be so worth your time to check them out.

torchsong.moonfruit.com
Or on Myspace

The Chambers-Nicholson roadshow at Penrith Panthers

I don't live anywhere near Penrith Panthers, but I was prepared to take the trip in order to see Kasey Chambers play with her husband, Shane Nicholson, and father, Bill Chambers, on Saturday 14 June. It was so very, very worth it - starting with the fact that I'd somehow ended up with front-row seats!

Shane and Bill opened the evening as a duo, alternating the lead role - Shane sang one of his songs, Bill did one of his own, and so on. My band buddy loved Bill; I preferred Shane's stuff. But the band buddy is a folkie - she appreciated Bill's grizzled ol' troubadour style.

After a short break they reappeared with Kasey, who was recovering from a cold but singing beautifully regardless. It was a real treat to have an all-acoustic show featuring Bill's array of stringed and steeled instruments as well as Kasey's trusty guitar - the beauty of Kasey's songwriting was exposed. I've long felt that Kasey is one of Australia's greatest songwriters; the test of a good song is usually when it's played in a stripped-down fashion, and her songs were all revealed as very good indeed.

Kasey likes to chat between songs, and she is endearing and funny and warm. At one stage she made a remark about how her voice must be very hard to put up with for audience members who'd been dragged along to the show. It didn't seem like a disingenuous remark - she obviously knows that some people don't like her voice (I know a few) and is at ease enough with herself to not care. What was most interesting about the show - for me, at least - was how the lack of instrumental adornment allowed her to really push that voice and showcase its range. Her voice is fundamentally a very powerful instrument with beautiful timbre, propelled by a mighty set of lungs.

The absolute highlight of the show was an impromptu version of 'Paper Aeroplane' (from Wayward Angel). The recorded version of the song features only Kasey and a guitar. On this night Kasey announced that they'd found a piano backstage, which meant she could perform the song in its original form - something she doesn't often get to do. Shane played the piano; Kasey stood, so still and without her guitar, and sang. The song tells the story of an elderly man whose wife of 62 years has died; the lyrics alone are enough to touch any listener. But it wouldn't have mattered what Kasey was singing about - I've rarely seen anyone sing so directly from the heart, and the notes that welled up from her seemed to have every single person in the audience in tears. Just a girl and piano, but what an extraordinary musical event.

Other high points were a song performed by the Dead Ringer Band - Kasey's mum and brother, Nash, appeared as Shane exited stage left - and the opportunity for the audience to request tracks from Rattlin' Bones, and actually have the requests played. But I was one of the successful requesters (asking for 'Wildflower') so maybe it was only a highlight for me ...

Kasey said that the Sydney State Theatre show in August will be half acoustic and half a band show - if it's half as good as the Panthers show, it will be an amazing night.

Kasey and Shane: there aren't enough words

I've been slack on the posting front, mainly due to the fact that I spent the month of May just working working working. I missed the Orphanage sessions for the month, and I'll miss this month's too. But I have been in raptures since I took delivery of my signed copy of Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson's Rattlin' Bones. This is one hell of an album and it just gets better and better with each listening. Kasey and Shane's voices sound like they were made for each other, although I imagine they get a lot of chances to practise their harmonies!

The balance of tracks - rough and smooth, sad and happy, rip roaring and mellow - is just right. It's hard to think of a way they could improve on it, really. Even better, they're hitting the road and I've got my ticket to the Penrith Panthers show ...

Now, can EMI explain why Shane's solo CDs are no longer available in this country? Anyone who wants them has to order them from Amazon.

www.kaseyandshane.com

Bits and pieces: Dan Sultan, Tift Merritt, Nina Gordon

I’ve been slow to pick up on the many talents of Melburnian Dan Sultan (www.dansultan.com) but ever since I first heard the first song – ‘Your Love is Like a Song’ - of his first album (Homemade Biscuits) I’ve been hooked. This is one of the best songs of all time, from Sultan’s gorgeous, rough-edged, expressive vocals to the musical arrangement backing him up. The act that is ‘Dan Sultan’ appears to be a combined effort of Sultan himself and collaborator Scott Wilson; the band behind them contains horns and seems capable of playing country, rock and soul – thankfully, not all in the same song. Homemade Biscuits isn’t perfect but I’d dare suggest it’s iconic, for it marks the start of what is surely a long, illustrious career from a very talented singer-songwriter.

American Tift Merritt (www.tiftmerritt.com) has followed up her 2004 country album, Tambourine, with the more eclectic – and, for this listener, more beautiful – Another Country. Written largely on a piano while Merritt lived in Paris, this album is quite a different journey to Tambourine but it’s worth taking it. Expect to have the CD on high rotation after about five listens.

Nina Gordon (www.ninagordon.com) isn’t strictly country but she had two kind-of-country tracks on her 2000 release, Tonight and the Rest of Your Life. So I’m using that long bow to mention her latest effort, Bleeding Heart Graffiti. Okay, it’s pop. It’s pop rock, even. There’s no country music on it. But she does pop rock so well – and producer Bob Rock does such a good job bringing her pop rock to its fullest potential – that I can’t resist anything she does, and after the long wait between albums I was delighted to find that this one was even better than the last, and I’ve barely been able to stop listening to it. If you love great melodies, unthreatening but comforting lyrics and a completely satisfying, air-punching kind of CD, get it now.