Reviews
Artist:Gerry Spehar Album: Lady Liberty
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 3
Website: http://www.gerryspehar.com
Released as a digital download, this serves as a bookend to the Colorado troubadour's 2018 protest album Anger Management, released timely to coincide with Joe Biden's inauguration. Featuring members of I See Hawks In L.A., Double Naught Spy Car and Bonedaddys as the studio band, it opens with 'Lady Liberty, Day One', evocative of Bruce Cockburn in its groove and heady guitar work and a song of hope for light after the darkness of the Trump nightmare, dedicated to Civil Rights campaigner John Lewis as well as the men and women who stood strong to support America's democracy as he reiterates the inscription on the Statue of Liberty offering refuge to the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free.
Turning to the current pandemic, channeling Kris Kristofferson and accompanied by acoustic guitar and lap steel, 'Laura Dean' is dedicated to all those on the frontline and tells the story of a young nine-months pregnant ER doctor agonizing in tending to her dying mother ("Gets the kids on Zoom to say goodbye before their Grandma's gone") and having to walk away from patient care as Covid inundates her hospital and Trump "fights with the press, points his finger, beats his chest".
Depending on how you look at it, there's either three or five tracks, the third being the twelve minute 'Immigant Suite' which can either be listened to in its entirety or its three constituent parts, each of which tells a fact-based story about a journey to the Mexico/US border.Opening with Spanish guitar, the first is 'Barrier Reef', a minor key ballad about a young girl's crossing the Rio Grande alone and riding a train called the Beast to reach her father in Virginia, Christine Spehar on harmonies with trumpet and fiddle from Erinn Bone and Gabe Witcher, respectively.
Driven by urgent fingerpicking and featuring fiddle solo, 'Boy and Beast documents the young Enrique as he hops a boxcar on the same train, heading north to his mother in Los Angeles. Both have happy resolutions, but that's not the case with the final track, 'Meet Me at The Moon', a James Taylor style fingerpicked ballad with a trumpet flourishes as, part in Spanish, as a father now working in America recalls how, every day, his young Guatemalan daughter would sing to him over the over phone to him, dreaming of the day she will join him, only to fall victim to gang wars before she gets the chance.
Mingling hope and despair, joy and sadness, it's a short but potent herald to what has to be a new beginning when that torch once again shines proud and bright.
Mike Davies
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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.