Sweet Solo
Val McCallum has an impressive CV of guitar-assists having
played for these and more: Jackson Browne, Lucinda Williams, Ron Sexsmith,
Loretta Lynn, Tim McGraw, Shelby Lynne, The Wallflowers, Natalie Merchant. This
album presents him as a strong solo singer-songwriter and performer with a
number of stand-out tracks but also more introspective and complex growers. One
of the latter variety is fourth track Deal
With It with its simply strummed acoustic and a poignant narrative about
dealing with death, and then the song ends with the catharsis of McCallum’s
electric slide providing an emotive peak along with the harmonies that also
rise in volume at this point. It is a powerful song and well worth the rewards
of careful listening. This is followed by a Neil Young Old Man rhythmic pilfer for Ghost
Town where there’s more cool slide.
The album opens with stand-out Digging For Gold. This is perhaps the prettiest song melody-wise,
with beautiful vocal harmony, but I also like the clever discordant notes in
the opening guitar lines, and its layers are further developed by later subtle
electric guitar. This is followed by another strong song Tokyo Girl written
about meeting his wife Sheli in a bar in Tokyo in 1990. This is also a very simply
strummed acoustic song with the simple honesty of romantic confession.
We arrive at the title song as the eighth track and by now
the pattern is firmly established: strummed acoustic over which stabs of electric
layers open the vistas in the storytelling. It is a gentle and calming view
overall, and album closer Rarebird
confirms and consolidates this with more complex acoustic guitar playing –
relatively speaking - and McCallum’s softly sung stories, here ranging into a
higher register where it meets more close and varied harmonies. This is a sweet
end to a sweet solo outing.
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