Provenance is the improbable sound of Americana from North Yorkshire and comes heavily steeped in the blues.
The album is the follow up Hooley's equally dour debut, ‘Songs From The Back Room (2021), and features ten story songs that draw upon the Scarborough-based artist’s past.
In the belief that less is more, Hooley and producer Justin Johnson decided to strip the arrangements back to basics with simple acoustics and no drums.
The low-key songs are greatly enhanced by Jim Van Cleve’s elegant fiddle playing and other musicians include Mark Gordon (piano), Scott Poley (guitar).
Several songs are about women who have crossed Hooley’s path. Casualty is dedicated to a person who is not as self-assured as she first appears; Oh Susannah is a bitter-sweet ode to an ex and in Magdalena, he tries to put the essence of an enigmatic woman into words.
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Some Say is a touching lament for a close friend and musical mentor who lost a battle with alcoholism while If Only finds the singer yearning for a simpler life where broken hearts could be magically fixed.
Corbin Keep plays cello on the album closer -The Veteran's Song - about the futility of war and hypocrisy of world leaders which ensures that there’s no uplift to the profoundly introspective mood of this record.
Bandcamp link
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