Gwyn Jones and David Osborne don't exactly overwhelm you with background information for this album.
Their press release states with studied vagueness: "We've been around in various bands together and separately in the UK and USA for quite a while now". Thanks for nothing!
The American accent could fool you into thinking they are both from Nashville but, from what I can gather, Jones is Welsh and Osborne is an Englishman who now resides somewhere in the States.
This album consists of twelve original songs apart from Ballad of a Londoner which is by James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915).
The mood is almost universally bleak with dour tales of heartbreak in the tradition of Merle Haggard and George Jones.
This is exemplified in One Thing Leads To Another which charts the trajectory of a romance from the highs of courtship, marriage and parenthood, to the lows of betrayal and loneliness. By the end, the singer laments of having no wife, no home and no hope; forcing him to declare forlornly "I don't know if I will recover".
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I'm In Pieces is a livelier number but the words are just as gloomy.
Back In The Saddle offers a glimmer of optimism although,in the context of the other songs, you don't hold out much hope that a revived love affair will endure for long.
The closing track, Die Sober, sums up the despairing sentiments of the record : "I want to be the architect of my own misfortune".
Compared with these guys, Morrissey sounds positively chirpy.
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