Fran McGillivray Band
Album: Some Luck
Label: Joka
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.franmike.com

If, like me, you're used to seeing the name Fran McGillivray followed by the name Mike Burke, rather than the word Band, then fear not, Mike's signature fingerpicked acoustic guitar resonates through this album as strong as ever, this is more about reflect the additional personnel that have joined them for "Some Luck".

Blues is a genre that can be really hard to pin down, it encompasses so many different aspects, I suppose these days, it's as easy to define by attitude and feel as it is by sound. The attitude is very much that heart felt, spiritually tinged sound, one you know that comes from the heart and a life lived, rather than the empty words of a sermon. The setting very much in that folk blues, keep it deceptive simple, mode.

Fran, has one of those voices that it's difficult to define, it's not the most complex voice you're ever going to hear, it doesn't work the scales, it's not a voice that goes in for dynamics, rather more the voice of a storyteller, one that gives emphasis in the right places, lifting words from being just words and into a key component for expressing emotions and events.

"Some Luck" could be described as much a collection of short stories as an album, but it's way more than that, because the music is just so damned sympathetic. The playing and arrangements are strong, it sounds so easy, as though you could pick it up just like that and soon realise that you can't well not straight away, the sign of really top musicians.

There are songs that you can pick up very easily, "When A Love Grows Cold", for example, is a song that you could imagine a bar room choir really getting their into, even taking the chorus off into the round.

The main difference between the sound of the band and the duo, is a subtle line in percussion, it enhances that session feel to the album, as though each song was being worked through even as it was being recorded, an intensity between the musicians that got captured on the tape, allowing you to feel that trust and respect. The result is that "Some Luck" is quite some album.

Neil King