In
an often grey and repetitive musical landscape, one of the things you
can count on is that when the Red
Dirt Skinners deliver
a new album it will bring some sunshine with it. 'Behind
The Wheel'
is a beautiful mature piece of work by two class musicians and
writers who, after a long journey, are clearly now totally
comfortable with where they are at musically.
Anyone
who has followed their work over the last few years will know that
they have, indeed, been travelling - literally, musically and
lyrically. They have pushed some boundaries – (for a start, how
many close harmony sax and guitar duos do you know?) – and look at
all the fun they have had confusing the genre police. They have
written some demanding, tough, spiky, hard songs as well as some
sentimental traditional ballads. They have put their own relationship
under the public spotlight. They have sprinkled some magic dust over
the occasional cover and they constantly establish a bond with
live audiences that most musicians would envy. They can do
sing-along. They can do shut-up-and-listen. Now they have delivered a
wonderful romantic love story with, like every relationship, a few
bumps in the road.
Appropriately,
the title track 'Behind The Wheel' allows Sarah's sax to roam,
throttle open, like a free spirit over what has got be one of the
best 'road' songs for a long long time. Put this on repeat and head
for the freeway. This is followed by a couple of tenderly written
no-nonsense love songs 'Home Sweet Home' and and 'The Other Half',
the latter being a carefully nuanced opportunity for each of them to
sing solo to each other. This is classic harmony writing and singing.
If
you have seen these two in live performance you will know that they
always bring an enormous response from their audiences who know when
to join in and when to listen in quiet admiration. There are several
tracks on here that are certain to set their audiences both on fire
and also get them to look knowingly at each other. 'The Inspiration'
is a clever sidelong glance at those relationships where some 'people
like you' can be demanding and oblivious to the problems they cause
but 'karma will tell, I wish you well'. A particularly good example
of their knowing lyricism is 'Thoughts of The Past' which is a
painful recall of a once beautiful lady who has both aged and
saddened with her years...'her Chardonnay is laced with ice and
tears' is not a line that is easy to hear but fits perfectly into
this beautifully harmonised piece.
'Daybreak'
is another fascinating track where they play around with tempos and
harmonies, again singing to each other and with each other, rolling
it to a mad frantic guitar and saxophone driving finish. I can see
audiences from Toronto to Tooting jumping to this one. The final
track is a delightful instrumental reprise of an earlier enigmatic
love song 'Eleanor Joan'. Symbolically, Sarah's sax flys high and
free again over the top of the Rob's rhythmic guitar as they drive
off, surely, into a golden landscape.
The
Skinners have produced yet another eloquent and classy album. As
usual, it won't fit into your orderly music filing system anywhere -
but make sure you put it on the top of your shopping list.
