Gary Hall
Album: Winning Ways On Losing Streaks
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.garyhallmusic.co.uk

It was the Bonzo Dog Band who raised the question "Can Blue Men Sing The Whites?". A similar question might be "Can a man from the North of England [Preston, to be precise] be a convincing Americana artist?". In the case of Gary Hall, the answer is, most definitely, "Yes".

He may come from West Lancashire rather than West Texas but Gary is an expert practitioner of American roots music.

I first heard and saw Gary playing locally in the late 1980's, when he fronted a band called Gary Hall and The Stormkeepers [who also included amongst their number a certain Michael Weston King from Southport, who is now achieving considerable success with "My Darling Clementine"]. The Stormkeepers broke up in 1993 and Gary moved to America where he recorded several albums and toured extensively. Gary returned to England in 1999 and set up Voodoo Rooms Studios, to produce new artists. In 2011, Gary released "That Old Brand New", his first album in fifteen years. In the winter of 2012/13, Gary recorded this new album "Winning Ways On Losing Streaks", which consists of ten original compositions and one cover, a version of "Wagon Wheel" which was originally sketched by Bob Dylan but completed by Ketch Secor of The Old Crow Medicine Show.

For this album, Gary has written an excellent set of songs and has assembled a fine group of pickers - Ian Bailey [guitars];Steve Conway [dobro, lap steel];Richard Curran [violin]; Dave Fitzpatrick [banjo]; Andy Guttridge [mandolin]; David A Smith [bass] ;Mark Whiteside [drums] ; Mark Wilkinson [guitar,banjo] and Paul Casey [vocals].This band provide a perfect acoustic-rock setting for Gary's powerful vocals, which lie somewhere in between Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen and John Stewart. It's difficult to pick out favourite tracks as they are all of a very high standard but I particularly liked the opener, "The Feel Good Factor Blues", "The Enemy Within" and "Stick Around Bojangles"[featuring some excellent violin from Richard Curran, which gives the track more than a whiff of Bob Dylan's "Desire" album].

An untypical but nonetheless excellent track is the bittersweet ballad "I Can't Believe She's Gone", which is one of the saddest songs that you are likely to hear this year.

The cover version of "Wagon Wheel" is an absolute cracker, which has echoes of The Band in their prime. Another excellent song is "Red Dirt Roads" and it's not too hard to imagine it being sung as a duet by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris.

This really is an excellent album. If it was by a big name singer-songwriter from across the Atlantic, it would hailed as a classic slice of Americana. Let us hope that Gary gets the recognition that he so richly deserves because this a fine piece of work.

Peter Cowley