Singer/guitarist PAT DEIGHAN hails from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Formerly a member of indie band Strawberry and more recently Eyes for Telescope he also moonlights in an alt.country band by the name of The Tuesdays.
The aptly titled ‘Night Light’ is a slow burner of an album loathe to reveal its quality too quickly; even after repeated plays it still remains something of an enigma. So well has Deighan absorbed his many influences that he manages to stamp an authority and an identity on all the styles he employs while still managing to keep the album coherent and distinctive in its own right. Similarly no one song jumps out at you such is the variety and quality contained within the songs. There are snatches of Paul Westerberg, Warren Zevon, REM, The Stones, Dylan as well as current favourites like Jesse Malin and Ryan Adams etc. Vocally he has the cracked barstool resignation of Howe Gelb/J.Mascis but his music ranges from bar/blues through alt.country to rock ‘n’ roll and folk: all tackled with a rawness and freshness that can only have come from plying his trade in his early days fronting post punk rock bands.
One of the album’s subtle pleasures are the guitar arrangements that Deighan creates ranging from killer hooks on tracks like ‘Ants In The Sugar’ or ‘Lost At Sea’ to propellant instrumental breaks on ‘All The Streets Are Dark’: all undertaken without excess or fuss, just skilfully applied where necessary.
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Overall this is an album of scrapbook images and observations that seem to draw their inspiration from the people encountered and the places visited long after the sun has set. The moods range from the high expectations of the early evening through drink-fuelled aggression and maudlin and onto the repercussions and concussions of the morning after: all with the world weary eye that Deighan casts.
‘Night Light’ is a simple pleasure superbly executed by a musician with a natural gift for song-writing and a laid-back approach to the playing of his songs: an album to return to time and again, preferably in a quiet place with a large whisky.
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