With a dead fox draped around his neck on the cover pic Alan Bonner looks a bit of a bozo, and it would be all too easy to dismiss him as just another singer-songwriter with a misguidedly flamboyant side, but to do so would be to overlook the quality of his songwritng. The first song, ‘Autumn’ – a piano-led reflective lament sets the tone, but only half-hints at what’s to follow. After whipping out the banjo – or is it a ukelele? - for ‘Lighthouse Song’, he’s back to tinkling the ivories on ‘Look at Me’, a ragged confessional that’s powerful in its simple honesty. It’s the uncluttered arrangements and thoughtful lyrics that present very real vignettes that makes Bonner’s songs so appealing.
There’s a ‘classic’ quality and feel to the nine songs that make up ‘Balladeer’. So many artists strive for it, but only very few achieve it, and so he can be forgiven for coming on a bit Neil Diamond in the delivery of the nostalgia-tripping ‘Talia’. His lightness of touch even permits him to tackle heavier topics, as on ‘Rainbow Man’, a protest song inspired by the murder of Matthew Shepherd.
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By offering more than mere fluff and without being the woeful, inward-looking singer-wongwriter stereotype (although he has his moments), Alan Bonner feels more rounded and is more interesting than most.
Alan Bonner Online
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