Reviews

Artist:Hello Darlins
Album: The Alders & The Ashes
Label: Continental Song City
Tracks: 17
Website: https://www.thehellodarlins.com/

Founded in Calgary by Romani-Canadian vocalist Candace Lacina and keyboardist Mike Little who then recruited some of Canada's top session musicians, the current line up being drummer Chad Cromwell, bassist Bob Glaub and Murray Pulver and Russell Broom on guitars, the title symbolic of change and growth, this ambitious 2-CD sophomore album embraces blues, gospel, folk and country. It opens "standing at the crossroads of devotion and betrayal" with the quiveringly sung, aching strum and ringing guitar solo of 'Forgiving Cain and Loving Abel', one of their finest moments to date, the title a metaphor for trying to find middle ground in a volatile relationship where "It's like playin'/Snakes and ladders/But there's no ladders/On the ground". Opening with an unaccompanied chorus, the musical tone shifts immediately with the hook-friendly country pop 'What Is A Broken Heart For', a number that reveals itself to actually be about questioning God as Candace sings "You can watch over my neighbors/But don't even worry 'bout me …How can you say that you love me/And still let me go through this pain".

JD Edwards guesting on vocals, backed by swirling R&B organ and electric guitar wails, 'Sea That Meets The Sky' has a gospel undercurrent in its capturing the mysteries and beauty of life ("It's the taste of summer wine/And the smell of burning birch …It's the love we wanted so bad/And the first kiss in the dark/It's the tears that kept on cryin'/When we mended a broken heart") and a reminder that you "Gotta take the lows, with the highs/It's nuthin' but a grain of sand in time/cause we'll live and we'll die forever as the sea that meets the sky".

In contrast, taking tempo and volume down, Dave Gunning on banjo. 'Lay Down Low' is a gently jogging bluegrass track with a Don Williams feel about taking it slow when the burdens get too heavy and when "When all the talk of love and hurt/Don't make a difference". Gunning switching to guitars, the piano-anchored country-folk 'Highway 335' speaks of ghost towns and cars you can no longer drive as a metaphor for dementia ("Now she's got static in her mind/Like an old TV stuck in time/And if one day she don't know your name/You can talk about that highway… Cause this old road will always bring you back").

Dave Fenley singing lead, 'Better Days' is a laid back soulful country with a musical vibe reminiscent of 'True Colors' where weariness gets the better of hope ("I hear you sayin'/"There's a good day comin'/They'll be sunshine after the rain"/But it's moving slow/Like a river made of honey …how I need some healin'/Cause holdin on feels like it's not enough"), perhaps aptly followed by the chugging Fleetwood Mac-ish upbeat 'Don't You Fall' which is, in fact, a song protesting about tree felling ("You've been standin' on holy ground/Doesn't seem like much when you're lookin down/But you've lived, you've lived and been around/And you're worth more before they cut you down").

Keeping things jogging along, Josh Matheny on dobro, 'Carefree Arizona' also talks of trees as carved bark witnesses to lovers, except here things have fallen apart, and having bought "a one way ticket headed for disaster", the song's subject has grown "tired of hoping things get better" and "done believin' that he changed or ever gonna" is leaving, and wondering "if that tree will ever get the healin'/The kind she's needing for her heart".

Pedal steel and fiddle joining the party, 'Died With His Boots On' is a goodtime Dolly-like hayseed stomp about as Candace's granddaddy who lived life to the full and, quite literally, out working the farm, died with his boots on, a celebration of life not a lament for death, it even comes with chatting and hollering and a yodeling solo.

Side two opens in downcast mood with the rainfalling guitar notes of 'Reasons To Cry' ("sky's been lookin' heavy with heartache/And the willow trees weepin' again/The house on the hill turned their lights off/Do they know that you're not comin' back/Even the sunlight hurts to look at/And the coffee sitting cold on the shelf/I've lost all the feelin' in my hands and toes/It's like winter is numbing itself"). The subdued mood continues into 'Best Worst Mistake' and its heartfelt sense of loss and regret ("Blowing off the dust/From a jar of plastic flowers/In a motel called The Lover's Hideaway/I'm holdin' a T-shirt/And a box fuzzy pictures/Reminding myself why I couldn't stay") over the indifference that's left the narrator "feelin' hollow…Devoted to my best worst mistake".

Featuring Ruby Friedman on lead vocals, 'Lonely Shore' has an early Lucinda feel with lyrics that follow the any port in a storm line about doomed relationships ("I'm a sinking ship/And you're the lonely shore"), 'Mama Knows' and its loping drum beat bringing more Mac echoes with a dose of fiddle-driving Celtic folk rock ("When hoping and searchin'/And faith isn't workin'/It's alright/Mama knows") while Pulver takes a rare vocal spotlight on the Skynyrd meets Steve Miller blues rock country vibe of 'Do It Up Right'.

Martin Sexton guesting on drawled, prowling vocals, claps, tooth whistle and distorted solo, It ends on the self-explanatory titled bass burping 70s Southern bluesy psychedelic funky 'Stranger In The Mirror' that comes in two versions, a radio friendly one and an extended five-minute plus one that stretches out into organ-sweeping jam band territory.

Double albums can often feel over-extended, going over similar ground, but this, stylistically and musically variegated, doesn't have a redundant track in its bones.

Mike Davies

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