The follow-up to KB Bayley'S ‘Little Thunderstorms’ from 2021 is the quiet after the storm.
The tracks were all recorded simply; just the artist on Weissenborn guitar and unaccompanied vocals.“I wanted to share these songs and stories in their most raw form”, he says.
Bayley seamlessly blends old and new with six fine originals and four well-chosen covers. He was brought up in the northeast and south coasts of Britain but one would be hard-pressed to place the songs precisely in time or place.
On Time Machine, he sings “Don’t ask about the future, the past has had its day, gonna build a time machine, we’ll live here in today.” World Without You contains the refrain “Everything is different, this town looks the same.”
There’s no great surprise that Bayley chooses the bluesman Kelly Joe Phelps as one of the artists to cover. His version of The Black Crow Keeps On Flying is faithful to the original’s mellow mood.
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The other covers are The L & N Don’t Stop Here Anymore, Jean Ritchie’s song of impoverished coal miners; Tom Waits short but sweet Johnsburg, Illinois and Jason Isbell’s Maybe It’s Time that was sung by Bradley Cooper in the movie A Star Is Born.
The roots run deep in these Flatlands and this is a fine album by any measure.
K.B. Bayley’s website
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