Singer songwriter Sam Loveridge is here with his debut solo album, although he is already well-known within the Auckland scene as he has worked with Mice On Stilts, Miss Peach and the Travellin’ Bones and Albi & The Wolves among others. If you don’t know who those bands are then it is highly likely you’re not from Aotearoa, and Sam is yet another example of fine musicians who would be much more widely known if only they were performing in the States or Europe. But he’s not and is instead living in the largest city of a country at the end of the world, and that’s just fine with me as I live here too! The album was recorded at AAA Studios with my friend TeMatera Smith at the helm, and I don’t know how many times he has raved over this album to me until we were in the pub together one night and I said to him “You do know I haven’t heard it, don’t you?”. That was soon rectified, and before the beer was gone I had a copy.

There is something really special about this album, and I’m not sure exactly what. Possibly it is the naivety, or perhaps it is the way a song can have both banjo and hard rock riffs and it still makes sense, or is it that Loveridge doesn’t have a classical songwriter voice but it contains more emotion, more gravel, and has a tendency to be in key but it feels as if it could go off at any moment – not Dylanesque but moving towards that direction, and certainly more melodic than Springsteen. He has a knack with material, with “Black Friday Blues” showing how he can transform songs by switching tempo and style in the middle. He is also not afraid to make statements, carrying on a tradition of songwriters through the ages, and “Killing The Dolphins” in particular contains lyrics to make the listener think.

There are times when he reminds me of Mumford & Sons, and if he could get just a fraction of that audience then it would be quite some achievement. Although many outside of New Zealand have heard of the Finn brothers, probably even some Americans now that Neil is in Fleetwood Mac (who performed Split Enz’s “I Got You” here in Auckland last week), but over the years we have produced wonderful performers who will probably never gain the international recognition they so richly deserve. I would love to think that Loveridge breaks that trend, with material that wouldn’t have been out of place in the Sixties and Seventies but has been brought right up to date. Find the video for “Better Days” on YouTube, find this album on Bandcamp, then buy the CD and support both him and one of the finest little labels around.

Rating: 8/10

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/samloveridgemusic/
https://www.aaarecords.com/news/