Morton Valence’s eighth album is eponymously titled as if to suggest a fresh start but the eleven original songs do not depart much from the familiar ‘urban country’ of the duo Robert ‘Hacker’ Jessett and Anne Gilpin.
The album was produced by BJ Cole who also plays steel guitar. Influences are taken from Americana but the Stateside atmosphere is relocated to Southern England. Something of the anglophile mood can be gleaned from the fact that Like a Face That’s Been Starved of a Kiss was co-written with Band of Holy Joy’s charismatic front man Johny Brown.
Other guest contributions add variety to the mix. The flamenco guitar of Amir John Haddad lends a stylish twist to the cowboy ballad Me & My Old Guitar while Dylan Bates’ violin adds a vaudeville feel to the deadpan humour of It Isn’t Easy Being an Angel.
|
These are not throwaway songs but, equally, Jessett and Gilpin never seem to be taking themselves too seriously. Their well-matched voices give the tunes an easy-going flavour to underpin and add contrast to the wistful nostalgia of the opening and closing songs : Summertime In London and Together Through The Rain.
On these two songs the couple are far away from home and the good times are a distant memory but hope still springs eternal. They soften but do not extinguish the warm glow of this album.
Morton Valence’s website
|