Reviews
Bluebyrd Album: Lead You Home
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: https://www.bluebyrdband.com/
The fourth album by Black Country duo Chris Rowley and Gareth Pask, this continues to mine their occasionally Americana-tinted folk, opening with the strummed swayer 'Right As Rain', a be positive message to those suffering the black dog of depression rather than expecting the worst ("Now the blue skies are here/You wait for clouds to appear") calling to "let it drench, let it cleanse, let it pour, let it purify me".
As the title suggests, another mid-tempo strummer, Shine On Me' has a similar message for those of a frown disposition ("How'd I miss the sunshine/How'd I miss the moon smiling on me?...How'd I miss that flower/The love that you shower down on me?") while 'Fine By Me' offers to be the search party for those "feeling lost at sea", an encouragement to be who you are ("What you are is how you're made/You don't need no place to hide/The song you are is how you're played") and walk in the sunshine not the shadows.
The minimally fingerpicked and sparely sung bluesy 'Nothing More To Do' takes things in a more downbeat direction, a post-break-up no regrets number ("So I'll go on my way/And you'll go some way too/We won't give in to second thoughts") and the inevitability of things stirring when paths cross ("Up a down escalator/I catch a glimpse of you/It happened sooner than later/I know you feel that too").
Social inequality and the haves and have nots divide guide the organ-based waltzing sway of 'The Great Disappeared' ("You show us you're winning while we've got nothing to lose/You're coming up roses with those in the know/We're counting your blessings cos we've got nothing to show") with the accept your place resignation that "hope is the franchise that pushes us into the mud/As we clamber like sinners at the feet of the great and the good/Uncertain and hurting/Knowing we'll never compare".
Maintaining that mindset, the choppy strumalong bluesy 'Black Country Towns' is a lament for those forgotten ("They've buried our heroes/Under cable tv/They've hidden our stories/So we can't see/Where we come from/Or where we're going to"), trodden underfoot by those who now are remembered with "a statue in a high street…a plaque in a burger bar", who "rise/As our buildings fall/And in the big picture/We mean nothing at all".
Keyboard notes emulating avian trills, 'Hey Songbird' would seem to touch on the struggle to translate an idea into an actual song ("Some chords are open/Some chords are closed/Some notes fall freely/Some don't know where they should go") and finding yourself hitting a creative block ("I ask a question/There's no reply /You keep on keeping what's hidden inside…Now give me your rhyme/So I can read between its lines").
A respite from the negativity, despite the title, the intricate lullabying fingerpicked 'She Paints Portraits of Herself' is an anti-narcissistic song ("Others paint the brash and the bold/But hers is a gentler tale that's told") that again speaks to acknowledging who we really are as "intricate and delicate lines and light and colour reveal/The state she's in, her hopes and fears, where solace is and how she feels" and a call to look beyond the surface "the minuscule tells a bigger picture of who we are/Where we sit, where we go, how beauty lies under scars") as, shutting out the noise, they declare "pick up your brushes/Paint a portrait of yourself".
But then time passing with its scattered disarray, and perhaps hints of Alzheimer's, informs 'The Garden' ("Time was good to us/Gave laughter, love and luck/But time takes and so we stare/Into the garden") with its melodic echoes of French chansons, while the fingerpicked circling notes of 'Falling Down' again nods to how age takes away the things that once made you stand tall ("As you look up from the ground/You know your body's let you down/You dreamt of flying/But you're falling") and how "We spark and shine, illuminate the darkest skies then break in stormy weather/Fragmented bits and pieces, shards and smithereens we can't put together".
The lines "The road you walked along/That led you safely home…It's gone now" lead into the gently picked, slow waltzing music hall tinged closing title track, but, with a clarinet bridge solo by Allan Rowley, it ends on a more positive note for all those adventurers and wanders, be they fishermen, bands or just wanderers, with is anthemic crowd swayer refrain "lead you home, lead you home/The place we're all looking for/That holds us when we're out of sorts/Home, lead you home/The place we all want to see/Where we belong and long to be/Illuminate the way and lead you home". Their most melancholic album perhaps but nonetheless a firm musical hand to lead you through the darkness and back into the light.
Mike Davies
| Previous | Next |
|---|---|
| Downliners Sect: Sect Maniacs | Admiral Radio: Heirloom |
Recent Reviews
- Vinny Peculiar:The Curse of You Know Who
- Robb Johnson:Souvenir
- Paul McClure:The Good And The Bad Of It
- Jason James:Cut The Chain
- Downliners Sect:Sect Maniacs
- Bluebyrd:Lead You Home
- Admiral Radio:Heirloom
- Wendy Gregson & Renee McLachlan:Mother Tree
- TwoManTing:The Lightning Feather
- Spell Songs:In Thin Air
Fine By Me
Fatea Showcase Sessions
The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.
Pirate is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy
www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk for all the artist information.