Listeners are warned that the story songs of this Canadian singer-songwriter's sixth album "will tear your heart out, one note at a time". I can't say that his folk roots tunes struck me as emotionally potent enough to achieve this.
Tentrees, a former boxer and youth worker, clearly knows a lot about the small victories that give substance to our lives but his deadpan delivery makes him sound detached from the content.
Songs about a young accident victim who overcomes her injuries to become a wheelchair athlete (Wheel Girl) and a man who dies of brain cancer years before his prime (Tired Of Time) are full of compassion but these tales of triumph and tragedy are not as moving as they should and could be.
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His cover Mary Gauthier's Camelot Hotel shows his limitations. The original is a wry yet compassionate study of "cheaters, liars, outlaws and fallen angels". The world-weary tone in Gautier's voice carries the implicit message that 'there but for the grace of God go I' whereas Tentrees just sounds more like a neutral observer, reporting facts.
The eleven songs on this album are therefore plaintive and honest enough to tug at the heart strings without having the force to tear them out.
Gorde Tentrees's website
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