Harry Bird & The Rubber Wellies
Album: Bricks & Feathers
Label: Hot Drop
Tracks: 11
Website: http://hotdroprecords.com/

With a name like Harry Bird & The Rubber Wellies, you get the impression from the off that this is going to be a collection of fun and lively numbers. You wouldn't be wrong. Not too far wrong anyway.

Selling themselves as travelling folksters with an intimate cabaret of singalong choruses and general participatory fun, you're not going to encounter any diatribes debating the meaning of the universe or social and political commentary in their songs. Having said that there's something within the first few minutes of 'Hit A Wall In Me' that calls to mind some of the classic Dylan vocal phrasing but with much less of the serious intensity of the master bard. Not sustained, but a slightly uncanny resemblance. It's a lively opening, all barn dance and hoedown type stuff and just missing a little fiddling to take up a notch. Following on, 'There's A River' is set against a more laid back groove and sets the album off on a path which winds down to 'Laughter In Sleep' and 'Lonesome Road' where by mid album, the pace is slowed right down. There are plenty of relaxed tempo country styled and even reggae/ska influenced musings which err towards frustrating a little having been led into the album all guns blazing and expectant.

The switch to a relaxed vibe which runs through the meat of the album risks the possibly of losing interest although a couple of tracks at the end - 'Up Until Sunrise' and 'Roll Out The Cannon' - lift the mood yet evolve into a subdued ending again in 'The Pigeon Lord'. The low key country styled sound is pleasant enough but perhaps lacks the promise and excitement of their buoyant and upbeat material. The songs work best when they are driving along rather than drifting into the subtle, reflective and tranquil moods. When it's good, it's very good and when it's not; it doesn't quite fit into the 'horrid' box, but leaves you hankering for what works best. I think I know which tracks will be getting the repeat plays on this one.

Mike Ainscoe