Two Scots and an Australian met in a pub in Dunkeld and, united by their love of Hank Williams, formed a band – hence their name. The trio are Theo Barnard, Pepita Emmerichs and Donny McElligott and each has a strong musical pedigree albeit somewhere on the wild side. The band mutated into something unique and after an EP, All The Love You Need, and a host of gigs they put together their debut album, Silver Lining, with special guests James Mackintosh on drums and Ben Harrison on banjo and trumpet. And that’s about all I know.
I made the obvious mistake (so you won’t have to) when I saw that the first track was ‘Ring Of Fire’ and jumped to the conclusion that this was going to be a country romp. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Johnny Cash never got within a stone’s throw of this song. Co-written by McElligott this is a dark, powerful piece and, personally, I wouldn’t have opened with it – it’s not totally representative of the album as a whole. As a linchpin in the middle it would be perfect.
McElligott also wrote ‘99’, a much more country offering, but I guess it refers to 1999 rather than 1899. Emmerichs penned ‘Quick Grip’ with lots of banjo and fiddle and what sounds like a washboard but isn’t. Back to McElligott for the anguished ‘Shake’ (as in shake down), a lazy bluesy track decorated by Ben Harrison’s trumpet and another co-write with ‘Esmeralda Red’ about home decorating with a gothic back-story. It’s probably my favourite track. ‘Better Man’ is another song that sounds straightforward but probably isn’t. All three collaborated on ‘Long Is The Way’, another weird one and I’ll take the unusual step of quoting a whole verse to give you a flavour: “I crawled through your nightmares/Of love bold and true/Caught your diseases this just will not do/St Christopher lost me comin back from the South/But that cold North wind found me/Found me right out”. If a song can be described as slouching this one can and if you had told me that it’s a lost Bob Dylan track I would have believed you.
While we’re on the subject, Barnard’s banjo-driven ‘I Hope It Rains’ carries a bit of ‘Positively 4th Street’ with it and McElligott’s ‘Alaska’ is about a woman, not the largest state in the union. It’s another song of death and despair and he carries the theme on in the closing ‘Silver Lining’ just to leave us on a high point.
I really like Silver Lining but I can’t figure out how such sad songs can sound so upbeat. I guess it’s country style.
Dai Jeffries
Artists’ website: www.goodguyhank.com
‘Esmerelda Red’ – live:
Thanks for stopping by. Please help us continue and support us by tipping/donating to folking.com via
You must be logged in to post a comment.