Jack Garton has played with many Western Canadian roots bands, including Petunia and the Vipers, Blue Moon Marquee and Viper Central (none of whom I has previously heard of but no matter).
Since 2013, he has been a solo artist and released two albums (neither of which I have heard but no matter).
This album was written during one of the lockdowns of 2021. This was not an entirely negative experience. On the opening track, Watching Kurosawa, he celebrates movie watching and decides that sometimes it’s just better to be alone.
However, perhaps as a contrast to being pent up during the pandemic, enjoying the outdoors inspires happy pop tunes like Coming Back To Life Again, Good Times and Berkeley In The Springtime: “I’ve never been so happy in all of my life” he gushes enthusiastically on the latter.
Garton plays a range of instruments but specialises in the accordion and trumpet although I have to say the I didn’t hear much evidence of the latter. He has back up musicians and vocalists so it’s not just a one man show
The album covers a range of styles including an upbeat blend of folk, rockabilly, doo-wop. The accordion pieces mean that there’s also a hint of Cajun.
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The mix and match approach is lively but also feels a bit random. It means that there’s no flow or all-embracing mood to the record. For instance we have the Jump jive of Hey Grandad one minute and a surf guitar instrumental (Stovetop Coffee) the next.
It ends with The Field, the ultimate self-indulgence with a 13 minute spoken word story-song built around a rites of passage memories of love and sports.
The melodic piano ballad The Real Thing is the obvious standout track. This contains hints of self-doubt (“There’s a fine line between being famous and aimless”) but ends on a note of optimism: ”Sometimes the real thing is the same as the dream.”
Original Skin is probably an album to dip into rather than to listen to straight through. Among the fillers there are enough feel good tracks to make it worth the effort.
Jack Garton’s website
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