Although largely shunned by the overground rock press in the UK, homegrown British roots-rock continues to quietly produce artists of some resonance. Indeed, if you're a regular round here, you may well have caught us waxing lyrically about the likes of unsung heroes such as Michael Weston King and Quiet Loner, while Lancashire-based Ian Bailey is about to release a roots-related album of some repute.
"Beautiful Land" suggests Northumbria's MORGAN LE FAY are a welcome addition to this canon as well. We'll get to that in a moment, though I should first stress now that, despite the name, Morgan Le Fay are a band not an individual, based around the splendidly named singer/ songwriter Brereton Preen and accordion maestro Ian "Fastboy" Robinson, and "Beautiful Land" is the follow-up to their critically-acclaimed debut "Glororum Too."
Your reviewer didn't have the pleasure of that record, but certainly "Beautiful Land" has its' moments and is a good introduction to a talented, Cosmic American-flavoured songwriter, even if he sometimes wears his influences a little too obviously on his sleeve: literally, actually, seeing as the record's cover features the infamous Joshua Tree where - lest we forget - Gram Parsons ignominiously expired when the ice cubes failed to do the trick.
I'd wager Gram's ghost would be quite tickled by a fair portion of "Beautiful Land", too. Certainly he'd adore Cameron Smith's wicked honky-tonk piano on the stinging opener "New Religion", which also showcases Preen's deep, charismatic voice (vaguely reminiscent of Melbourne's Mick Thomas curiously) and Fastboy's natty accordion playing. Also, he'd probably have dug tunes like "The Catscratch Clown": a fiddle-led strut concerning a despicable she-devil which harbours some brilliantly bitchy lyrical insight like: "I'll keep funding all your wastes of time/ 'til the bugs bite back and the coke and smack take their toll on your lifeline."
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Elsewhere, the band favourably recall unsung Paisley Underground heroes like Steve Wynn and The Long Ryders on punchy, full-throttle tunes like "Come Shine Or Summer Rain" or expansive slowburners like "Somewhere There's A Light". "Beautiful Land" also proves they can tackle ballads with some aplomb, especially on the closing duo of "Sandshoes" and "Father Song". This latter - an open letter of love and regret written from a father to the two sons he left behind when they were young - is understated and especially moving, and quite possibly the album's absolute standout into the bargain.
Occasionally, the band's obvious love of Americana sounds forced, though. "These Guys" is a catchy enough homage to the beat generation, but stuff like "Let's talk about Jackie Kerouac, my one Big Sur/ kissin' the Dharma bums and the beautiful ladies in Jackie Duluoz' words" is really best left to nerks like The Thrills. Preen also leaves you scratching your head on the mystifying "Diabolical Mimicry". Indeed, if you can make any sense of "Attica, Orpheus, he of the tree/ That guy Dionysus, he courted Socrates" then frankly you're a better man than me. I'll stick with The Ramones, thanks very much.
Still, the occasional flight of verbosity (and the odd overwrought ballad like "Queen Of The Backstage") aside, Morgan Le Fay acquit themselves impressively enough with this second outing. Self-respecting roots-rock cartographers should make a point of getting to know the attractive features dotted around their "Beautiful Land."
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