Dan Finnemore is the longtime frontman with Birmingham outfit Swampmeat Family Band while Stewart Johnson is the lap steel legend who first came to notice with Ricky Cool & The Icebergs and whose career has since seen him play with many of country music’s great and the good as well as with his daughters Hannah and Sophie in The Toy Hearts and The Broken Hearts, his collaboration with Finnemore beginning in 2018 on the first Swampmeat Family Band debut.
With contributions from, among others, Buzz Bywater on bass, Liam Grundy on piano, fiddler Howard Gregory and Hannah, Julian Littman and Charlie Dore on vocals, Find A Love That Brings You Home, their first venture as a duo, Johnson providing Dobro and guitar alongside pedal steel, is steeped in country but also embraces the blues and 70s Laurel Canyon.
With a fiddle and mandolin arrangement by Howard and Hannah, she on backing vocals with Charlie and Julian, they open proceedings with the Hawaiian colours of country waltzer love song ‘Babybird’ about meeting the love of your life which, quoting Chuck Berry, “goes to show you never can tell”. The equally country ‘How Many Summers?’ takes a chugging rhythm as, Jonathan Lee on horns, Finnemore sings about shining on everyone and giving your love away until it’s gone, followed by the more desert country soul paranoia, anxiety and mob mentality of ‘Beady Eye’ (“You can pray to God but he wouldn’t take his fury out on me/I became someone I wish I hadn’t been… we’re all to blame round here/And we’re all the same round here/Until we’re not”).
A compact 100 seconds, again with Hawaiian steel colours, the easy swaying ‘How’s The World Treating You’ is the sole instrumental, staying in a laid-back JJ Cale groove with ‘Ride High’ where James Everhart on wah guitar and Liam Grundy on organ, Neil Young echoes seep into the slow shuffle about keeping your eye on the prize (“Ride high my little girl /Take on this brutal world”).
A love song, Liam’s piano tinkling away, ‘Ear To The Ground’ is another swayalong, the tone changing with the Johnny Cash cowboy chug of ‘The Gun’, a love song too but of a darker hue (“Everyone says that I’m a mess and I don’t deserve the love I get/Well, I guess they’re right/If you’ve got some love to spare, baby won’t you bring it on over here”), Stewart’s Telecaster solo plucking out notes like silver bullets while Hannah duel vocals with Dan. It ends with the title track, a two-stepping honky tonker with Mariachi brass flavours and percussive clicking, about having someone who helps you get back on up when the chips are down (“Look to the ones that can turn it around/Just call em up/You’re gonna find a love that brings you home”).
Find A Love That Brings You Home is an all too short but nevertheless welcome release that underscores the country talents of its two collaborators, hopefully there’ll be more from them down the trail, not to mention a long-gestating new album from Stew and Hannah too.
Mike Davies
Artists’ website: www.instagram.com/johnson_and_finnemore/
‘Find A Love That Brings You Home:
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