Reviews

Artist:Raintown
Album: Acoustic Heart
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: https://www.raintownmusic.com

Hailing from Glasgow and fronted by Claire McArthur Bain and guitarist Paul Bain on vocals and augmented by traditional-folk influenced Stevie Lawrence on acoustic guitar, bouzouki and mandolin, bassist Scott MacPherson, drummer John Alexander and Fiona Cuthill on fiddle and viola, with a variety of guests on harmonica, piano, accordion, Uilleann pipes, whistles, five-string banjo, dobro, saxophones and trumpet, this is their third album and, as the title suggests, is very much of an acoustic bent.

It opens in upbeat mood with 'Play It Loud', an encouragement to seize the day and rediscover the exhilaration of being alive ("It's been way too long since we've went out/Got all dressed up to hit the town/Leave it all behind, For a little while/Make some calls, then hit some bars/Dance all night, until the early hours"), a bluesy harmonica solo offering a goodtime bridge. Paul taking over lead, the chugging, mandolin-strummed, banjo-flecked 'Day In The Sun' moves from survival ("I have survived the sweetest scars of love/Wounds so deep cut me to the bone/And I have known the taste of poison and defeat/Running scared letting this heart grow cold") to self-discovery ("I've confessed to sins, I've never done/I've been proud, maybe I've been wrong/And I have walked streets where I thought I belonged/Only to find Lord knows, I was lost") and eventually empowerment in leaving the comfort zone in order to move forward ("Finally I'm seeing/Step aside, I'm leaving/Trying to find my day in the sun").

Opening with the line "Wedding dress for sale, brand new, I'll never wear it", 'My Whole World', Claire on vocals backed by strings and Lawrence's simple strummed acoustic, is a poignant classic country heartbreak ballad of a woman whose fiancé dies before they can wed ("House was bought, date was set,…Now instead of white I'm wearing black"), loading up the heartache with "Wedding dress for sale, still boxed there in the closet/By the suit he'll never wear, his speech still folded in the pocket/The best became the worst day of my life/This dress deserves some happy tears, I wish that they'd been mine".

There's a more upbeat clothing spin on 'Red Dress', a brass-coloured, boogie piano, brushed snare and harmonica solo number of Fairground Attraction buoyancy with Paul eyeing up the pretty girl alone in the corner ("My head says to leave is better/But my heart says go and get her") and Claire providing the response ("I been waitin' for a boy like you/To come along, show me love is true/Kinds hopin' 'fore the night is through/I'm gonna be with you").

As the title implies, sung by Claire after a lengthy guitar intro, the country-styled 'My Drum, My Beat' is about self-assertion ("Ain't it funny how's it goes/Trying to tear each other down/There's that voice inside/Saying you're not it now/I'm not buying that shame/No I ain't playing that game/Walking this tight rope/Into the great unknown"), finger-snapping providing the lead into the dobro and brass potency of the Southern barroom country swagger 'Light The Fuse Up', a reimagining of the track from their 'Hope In Troubled Times' debut, the duo sharing vocals on another seize the moment number ("It feels so close I can taste it/I'm going to leave the past behind now/Make this world brand new/You never know what you might find/If you take a little chance").

Things are reined back for Claire's soulful balladry 'In Your Heart', the girl from 'Red Dress' quite easily being the narrator singing "When I heard your voice, in a room full of strangers/My heart left me no choice, though I realised the dangers/When I looked into your eyes, the room felt quiet and empty/It took me by surprise, how much your smile could tempt me" with her memories of "the softness of your skin, that first night together" and the perfect love that ensues.

In contrast, the duetted 'Run With The Night' with its brass stabs and driving drums is a punchier affair with perhaps distant echoes of Pat Benatar, things slowing again for the classical guitar accompanied duet 'One Love', again touching on the transformative power of a passion that grips you, whether that's for a lover, a place or music, and you don't want to lose ("You're my everything/I don't want to give up/I don't want to give in").

Paul singing lead with fingerpicked guitar backing, a rippling mandolin and Claire harmonising, 'These Tears Tonight' flips the coin for a relationship splintering ("Oh we'd never run from the world, when we first set out/But the tide has turned, and left us high and dry/Every cross word and every lie told, remembered for forever/So much trouble raised in these stormy skies/And the rain won't wash away these tears tonight…We've been shouting so long, can you even remember?/What started this fight? Does it matter who's wrong or right?/Now we're standing on the edge and the darkness seems forever").

Dobro returns for the near six-minute, 'Writing on The Wall', a revisiting of the title track from their second album, another duet that starts out slow before building with a Southern swaggering country gospel power and another chugging harmonica break, raising hands to the heavens for the chorus "The writings on the wall, anyone can see/Is Lady Luck looking out for me?/Tell me know as the cards fall/Show me the writing on the wall".

Alba-Rose Bain adding vocals, it ends, pipes and whistles colouring the acoustic strum, with the slow country soul verse trading 'Thankful For It All', a simple prayer of gratitude for the rain, the sun, the shelter of home, the company of others,"for the people and the places I've known" and "if getting it wrong, means getting it right".

Their transatlantic hued blending of Celtic and country with a rock n roll spirit has won them ever-growing acclaim on the UK country circuit, this is, perhaps, the moment when they take flight over a much wider horizon.

Mike Davies

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