UK composer and musician Martin DAVIS isn’t a name too many will recognize I guess, especially those reading on the websites I write for. In parts of the UK he’s known as the front man for cover band Dirty Mavis, a band that has been ongoing for almost 15 years at this point, and as Davis is in his 50’s I would presume that he’s been active in projects prior to that band as well. “Long Way Home” is his solo debut, and was released at the end of May 2015.
While I do have the policy of reviewing any and all music sent to me, this is one of those cases where my personal taste in music draws certain limitations. Davis chosen turf is music of the kind most commonly called Country, or Country & Western by some. A type of music that isn’t one all that dear to me personally I’m afraid. Hence the concluding rating. What I can state with some degree of certainty is that those who treasure this kind of music probably should read on.
To expand: This album is to my ears a fairly typical Country creation. The vocals are central, as most songs revolve around a story being told, and supporting the vocals we have a steady drummer and bassist, acoustic guitars maintaining the lead motif quite nicely, and there’s a liberal use of steel guitar throughout. The accordion and harmonica gets a few airings alongside the violin, and on quite a few tracks the banjo is applied, in one instance a mandolin might have been used too: Hearing the difference between these two isn’t the easiest for a non-musician like me.
The compositions comes across as fairly well developed, and are generally pleasant enough to my ears. This is, at least to my judgement, material of the kind you will be familiar with if you go to to see Country artists performing live. There’s nothing here that I would say breaks the mold or challenges your perceptions about this type of music. If you want Country you’re most certainly provided with it here, from the mellow acoustic guitar and vocals based ballads to the barnyard dance tinged numbers and even a few instances of music I’d say is fairly close to my perceptions about what honky tonky is all about. I also get the feeling that this is a rather unpolished album, as I get the impression that these are live in the studio recordings that haven’t been polished all that much. Which may of course be the result of a massive amount of studio work, but the end result is music that sounds and comes across as true and honest. That a couple of the songs do suffer from some instruments and/or vocals subtly breaking kind of emphasize my impression that this is more of a bare to the bones recording, and one that sounds pretty similar to what Davis and his band will reproduce live on stage presumably.
While I’m not the greatest Country fan around, a few songs did stand out also for me. Opening number Gimme All You Got (Las Vegas) is a fun and engaging romp, of the kind that should have an uplifting effect on just about anyone. A high quality affair, no matter what your taste in music is like, and much the same can be said about A Little Rock and Roll thing towards the end of this disc. The Girl From Texarkana is another high point for me, with some subtle keyboard details and effective use of the banjo some of the aspects of this composition that in sum made this composition a more engaging listen for me at least.
At the end of the day, this is a production that is easy to recommend to an audience with a pre-existing interest in Country music. Purebred Country if you like, as this is music far removed from the pop/country hybrids that have been so popular the last 20 years or so. Which is why I have chosen to use the capital C in Country throughout this review, to separate it from the more modern style of music you’ll also find categorized as country these days. From what I can read on good, old wikipedia and my understanding about this style of music, I’d hazard a guess that a key audience for this album should be those who prefer what is there described as new traditionalist country.
My rating: 61/100
