Brett Walker And The Railbirds - Brett Walker And The Railbirds
Tracks :- Look A Little Closer Can’t Stay Too Long Tell Me Why What’s Still Left Drown In Your Ocean Rain Dance It’s A Good Thing Yesterday Has Gone Everything I Want I Could Be Wrong Take Me To The River American Dreamer Total playing time : 20:21 m:s Producer : Brett Walker Label : Westcoast Year : 1996
One of the first visitors to Mood Swings sent me a tape of samples from his record collection. The tape contained a couple of songs from Brett’s first solo outing called Nevertheless. So Brett’s work has been earmarked for further investigation for some time.
I decided to buy this album despite a mixed reaction in the music press. From the couple of songs I’ve heard and what I’ve read, Nevertheless could be described as pure AOR, possibly along the lines of Henry Lee Summer (I’m sure that if there’s better comparison then someone will let me know). For this album a more ‘rootsy’ approach has been adopted to give a ‘Mid-West’ style affair. It would appear that some members of the music press were looking of a follow up more along the lines of the first album.
First listen wasn’t that encouraging. My initial reaction was "Oh no ! Not another snoozeville Mid-West album’. I made a tape and put it in my car cassette player. After a while I realised that this album had sneaked up on me, I was playing it virtually non-stop in the car.
From my description of my initial reaction you can tell that Mid-West isn’t a genre of music that I’ve investigated too heavily. Jude Cole’s Start The Car album is one of the few albums in my collection that I can think of which could be described as Mid-West. The opening duo of Look A Little Closer and Can’t Stay Too Long would easily sit alongside any of the songs on Start My Car.
Tell Me Why has a post-grunge acoustic feel to it as purveyed by bands like The Jayhawks and Hootie And The Blowfish. Several of the songs, such as What’s Still Left and Yesterday Has Gone, evoke thoughts of latter day Lynyrd Skynyrd. The Eagles as possibly the ultimate Mid-West act and Rain Dance shows this influence. The Eagles occur again as Could I Be Wrong reminds me of Joe Walsh’s solo stuff.
Highlights are Drown In Your Ocean, It’s A Good Thing (a killer chorus. Why doesn’t my local radio station have this on it’s playlist), Yesterday Has Gone, Everything I Want and tucked away at the end American Dreamer. Everything I Want is a re-recording of a song from the previous album. If you read my Amen review you’ll find out what I think about this practice. In this case, I haven’t got the original version and it’s a good song, so I’m not going to get excited and jump on my soapbox again.
It wasn’t until I started to write the review that I realised just how much I like this album. I don’t have the earlier album to colour my judgement. Based upon it’s own merits, I think it’s a good album.
Rating : 8/9
