Raintown
Album: Writing On The Wall
Label: BMB
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.raintownmusic.com

The sophomore release by Glasgow husband and wife duo, Paul and Claire McArthur-Bain makes no pretentions to be anything other than a solid country album with a catchy pop sensibility. They both have the trademark country twang, their melodies are line-dance, leg-slappingly friendly and feature the staple ingredients of pedal steel, banjo and mandolin and, opening with the title track, there's no attempt to reinvent the wheels on which their wagon rolls.

Songs occupy familiar territory about love and relationships, crafted in radio friendly, style on the likes of 'If This Was A Love Song', 'Right Here With Me' and 'Beautiful Life', and there's also one, 'Feel Much Better Now', about how music and the radio can lift the spirits, and another, the guitar-slinging 'Nineteen Again', telling the oft-told tale about leaving home to find a better life and winding up broken and disillusioned.

But they also throw in a few curves. The midtempo twanging duet 'Missing You' is about the 2013 Clutha tragedy in Glasgow when 10 people died after a police helicopter crashed into their pub , imaging the last voice mail message sent to a loved one (the church-set piano-accompanied ballad 'See You Again' addresses a similar theme), while the rowdy, swaggery southern rocking 'Shut The Front Door' is about Internet trolls.

Although her voice is far stronger than his, it does what it sets out to do and you can see why they're making a solid name for themselves on the UK's country circuit. The next step is to take it to America and see if they can sell it to Nashville as effectively as they have here.

Mike Davies