‘Sweet Nothings’ is the fourth album release from Boston based band GIRLS, GUNS & GLORY and is a really good mish mash of country, rockabilly, and some folk tinged blues. The selling point however has to be singer-songwriter Ward Hayden’s clever lyrics and country voice, which suits the mood and tone of this CD perfectly.
The band comprises: - Ward Hayden on vocals, acoustic guitar, Chris Hersch on electric guitar, Michael Calabrese on drums and vocals, and Paul Zaz Dilley on upright and electric bass.
The album opens with ‘Baby’s Got a Dream’, which starts as a traditional country/folk tune and then morphs into the kind of rock anthem that you’d hear at a stadium gig. The band conducts the transition perfectly, making this a strong opener. The lyrics, as with most of the songs here touch on the twin themes of love and loss, done here in a very pointed manner: -
“Baby’s got a dream, baby’s got her dream/ How her happiness seems to make me miserable/ Have to let her go, have to tell her so/ What she’s doing is just bringing me down…. to my knees.”
While the album varies in genre, through rock etc. the tracks I found the best were the rockabilly-related ones and the country ballads, which really stand out as high points. ‘Last Night I Dreamed’ in particular. Once again, it’s the lyrics that stand out, again, it is the theme of love lost that is covered so well, in this case, the singer relating a tale of his girl marrying someone else: - “Last night I dreamed you walked down the aisle, your smile was as wide as a mile/ With a ring on your hand, your arm: another man. Thing’s didn’t go like we planned.”
|
‘Root Cellar’ is a fast paces rockabilly tinged country song, which details the aching sadness of emotional pain perfectly: -
“I aint got nothing, but a pain in my stomach. A mouth that just chews up the words/ I wish it was you that I was holding on to.”
“1000 Times” was a real surprise, a country ballad on which Ward duets with Sarah Borges, and is a song that could stand up alongside some of the classic duets like Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris: “Lord I know if dreams were booze, how sick I’d be/ I close my eyes I still see you/ There’s nothing I can do that could ever bring you back to me.”
It’s not all brilliant though, there were a couple of tracks like “Not a Girl Left in the World”, which for me fell short of the mark. While the lyrics were spot on, the fact that it was done in a rock style reduced it from being brilliant to just reasonable.
Overall though, there were far more hits than misses, and in Ward Hayden you have an excellent songwriter with an extremely talented band. Give this a spin and you won’t be disappointed!
Girls, Guns & Glory website
|
