Although not the official follow-up to MICHAEL WESTON KING'S excellent 2003 album "A Decent Man", "Absent Friends" is nonetheless a more than welcome addition to this under-rated singer/ songwriter's canon.
Comprising 14 (mostly) live recordings from a variety of performances over the past three years, "Absent Friends" is almost a sequel to Weston King's previous, officially-sanctioned live record "Live...In Dinky Town", and is - to these ears - arguably a stronger selection.
"Dinky Town" provided us with a virtually entirely solo acoustic portrait of Michael as folk troubadour, while "Absent Friends" is culled from an intriguing assortment of shows ranging from major events like this year's Glastonbury Festival ( including a tender, beautifully-weighted "Mother Tongue") with new backing group The Decent Men, through to MWK'S seemingly endless acoustic tours, either solo or in tandem with collaborators such as Rab Noakes, ex-Doll By Doll frontman Jackie Leven and Australia's equally under-rated Mick Thomas.
The full-band fireworks accounts for most of the album's first half. Highlights come thick and fast and include Weston King's Townes Van Zandt tribute "Lay Me Down", pepped up and adrenalised by The Decent Men at a London club date, while several tunes are recorded on a Danish island with pick-up band The Brondby Rock Quartet. These tracks (including a rousing "Celestial City" and the first-rate Gram and Emmy-isms MWK and Lou Dalgliesh invest in "Reserved For Me And You") were apparently rehearsed in a matter of minutes, but despite the slightly muggy sound quality, the band are professional, spirited and sympathetic to MWK'S needs.
The electric highlights culminate in a memorable, Uncle Tupelo-ish reinvention of The Undertones' immortal "Teenage Kicks" from Weston King's possible "last hurrah" with his old band The Good Sons. It's a surprise addition to an already notable back catalogue and sets the scene for the acoustic segment.
|
The folk club atmosphere captured on the last seven tunes will be familiar to those of us lucky enough to have caught Weston King in an intimate setting over the past two years. These include him busking through an endearing "Endless Wandering Stars" with Mick Thomas, segueing Tim Hardin's "Black Sheep Boy" seamlessly into his own "Tim Hardin '65" and unleashing some persuasive vitriol on the bitter "Always The Bridesmaid". The spoken intro to this song gives you an insight into MWK the raconteur, but I won't spoil that for you.
The darkness is effectively leavened by the inclusion of witty insights like "The Englishman's Obsession With America #2" and the deceptively jaunty Rab Noakes-penned "Blues Around Me Now" which is an apt closing track. Even better, Michael allows us a brief glimpse of his new material with the Neil Young-esque weariness of "Only Seven Days" and the ghostly transcendence of "I Fall Behind". Tinged with enduring sadness and regret, this latter is already gearing up to be one of Weston King's greatest songs.
Despite being collated from a variety of sources and occasionally suffering from slightly raggy sound quality, "Absent Friends" hangs together in fine style and captures the spontaneity, humour and emotional intrigue of Michael Weston King on any given night. It'll more than tide us over until our under-rated hero returns once more.
(available from www.michaelwestonking.com)
|
