Various Artists - The Harbour Union
Released 9th May, 2011 - Rhythm Method
Back in February, Mother Nature tried to shake the soul out of Lyttelton. She may have destroyed the historic Timeball Station, flattened iconic watering holes and turned much loved music venues to dust - but she couldn't crush the music at the heart of this unique seaside community.
A group of Lyttelton musicians have come together as The Harbour Union, raising money for their hometown with their self titled album. They've recently taken things up a notch, hitting the road for a six date nationwide tour in September and performing at the APRA Silver Scroll Awards. If you caught them live, you'll know what a talented, charismatic troupe they are.
The Harbour Union features 12 tracks from bands The Eastern, Delaney Davidson, Lindon Puffin, Al Park, The Unfaithful Ways, The Tiny Lies, Runaround Sue & Friends. The combination of a range of country styles and collaboration of artists on each track makes for an engaging listen. These are reworkings of songs each group has brought to the table.
The standouts are the offerings from The Unfaithful Ways and The Eastern, one an alt-country folk quartet, the other a hoedown-rousing band of performers. The Unfaithful Ways' Marlon Williams sets things a-swingin' with foot-tapping opener ‘Ghost Of This Town'. This and ‘Little Mountain Town' showcase Williams' knack for song writing and love of traditional country fare - tales of love, loss, and whiskey-soaked heartache. They say big cities are the loneliest places, and you certainly get that feeling from ‘Little Mountain Town'. Williams paints a picture of an empty city life, lived for love but not for joy. "The only thing that keeps me here's the love of a girl, the sad love of a girl. She'd never understand why I should ever want to leave her alone." In a raw expression of heartache, his plaintive wailing leads into a musical interlude of those staples of classic country, the banjo and steel guitar.
The sincerity of Williams' vocals pulls at you; his yearning for a simpler, modest life is tangible. Later you'll find yourself singing the chorus under your breath, the lyrics having woven their way into your heart, urging you too to flee to a little mountain town, not unlike Lyttelton.
Backed by The Eastern's signature fiddle, banjo and chorus of singers, Adam McGrath builds his stirring country ballads ‘The Waterside' and ‘Rocking Bell'. There's an American hint to his rich, gravelly vocals, which wrap the listener in their warm frankness. You won't find The Eastern's frenetic hoedown sound on this album, but they impress nonetheless.
The dusky, soulful undertones of Charlotte Ivey's whispery singing add a bittersweet beauty to The Tiny Lies' duet ‘You Once Said'. Delaney Davidson's numbers, however, just don't gel. His raspy vocals almost distract from what are decent songs, full of grim, country blues. I saw The Harbour Union in Christchurch on the opening night of their tour and they were magnetic. In Davidson's absence his songs were performed by other members of the Union, such as the beguiling Charlotte Ivey. The result was captivating.
It's hard to transfer The Harbour Union's onstage comradery to a record, but the sense of a heartfelt collective experience still shines through.
Tagged as : The Harbour Union | album review |
