The great thing about the emergence of Americana as a marketing tool is that it gives a profile to musicians and songwriters who would otherwise stay below the radar of us lot, the punters. I guess that it recognises that a lot of us have pretty broad tastes, always ready to hear something new.
Well here at the country end of the Americana scale is Duncan Walters with his second album; the sound is somewhere in the broad country between Dale Watson, Don Williams and, perhaps, Joe Ely, without actually sounding like anyone else. Warm and easy on the ear, Duncan's slice of life songs seek to entertain, to warm the heart and get the feet tapping.
With the help of some first rate playing from a pretty starry studio band (most notably Flaco Jimenez on accordion), he ticks all these boxes with ease and has made one of those albums that, without quite delivering a "wow!" factor, insinuates itself as a quiet favourite.
|
From the honky-tonk fun of "Mess Up My Truck" to the mellow sound of "Wash Away", featuring a contemplative fiddle part, Duncan covers a fair bit of musical ground so that there isn't one sound that defines "Guardian", but you feel that, given the chance over the years and many more albums, we'll come to know and love the Duncan Walters sound, and "Guardian" is a fine place to start that process.
|
