Cherry Red [Release date 14.10.22]
Gun trade in emotions – nostalgia, melancholy and ultimately, optimism. Always have, and they have become expert.
The title of their new album, The Calton Songs, confirms this. Born and brought up in “The Calton”, a district near Glasgow city centre (home of the Barrowlands), they learned early on that limited opportunities were no barrier to success.
And so the brand new (all electric) track that introduces this new album is called ‘Backstreet Brothers’. It’s a song for those who can look back on the hardships of their youth and be thankful for those humble beginnings, and the friendships they formed. Not to mention the defiance and drive they instilled.
Coming out of the pandemic intact, the band – Dante Gizzi, Jools Gizzi, Andy Carr, Paul McManus and Tommy Gentry – decided to celebrate by recording acoustic versions of their better known songs.
This 14 track album, The Calton Songs, is the result.
Considering the limitations of such an approach, it’s a very distinctive recording. In fact it’s unlikely that the band’s previous (and well thought of) vocalists, Mark Rankin and Toby Jepson could have pulled this off any better than current vocalist and founder member, Dante Gizzi.
Unplugging the music from its powered up life support system is a huge risk of course, and they’ve been careful to pick those songs most likely to survive a power down.
The bluesy, lived in timbre that Gizzi’s voice has taken on over the years adds a strong, driven sense of yearning to enduring songs like ‘Higher Ground’, ‘Better Days’ and ‘Coming Home’, and a weighty lyrical dynamic to ‘Frantic’, ‘Steal Your Fire’ and most especially to the band’s touchstone, ‘Taking On The World’.
But there’s not much to choose between them.
It’s a remarkably lean and confident collection of songs on which the underlying soundtrack to the band’s worldview rings out loud and clear. *****
Review by Brian McGowan
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
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In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.
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Power Plays w/c 15 April 2024
ENMY The Ledge (FiXT)
KAROBELA Get Hard (indie)
KATH & THE KICKS Neptune (indie)
THE BEE TELLERS River Poem (Black Sand Records)
LAUREN FREEBIRD Like A Bomb (indie)
Featured Albums w/c 15 April 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 KATARINA PEJAK – Pearls On A String (Ruf Records)
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