This self-produced eight track EP is available soon on itunes and will be released officially later this year, and showcases the deep-country leanings of from Manchester (via Nashville) singer ALEXIS McLEAN.
OK, the Nashville part isn’t strictly true, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it was as these hazy, lazy songs unfold, for McLean’s lilting vocals are steeped in Tennessee tradition despite her northern English roots.
The EP’s title track is delivered on a music-hall piano with simple strummed chords on the acoustic helping the easy flow of this downtempo ditty along. Other tracks, such as the saddened ‘Let You Be’ and the sprightly ‘Stitchin’ Seams’ are studded with the harmonics, deft licks and banjo kicks of guitarist MAT SKINNER. However, it’s vocal harmonies that enrich the refrain-heavy thunderstorm of ‘All My Lovin’, as it rhymes its way across the light fantastic.
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For authenticity’s sake, there’s a good old dose of lap steel entwined both this, the electric insomnia of ‘Late In The Night’, and the chilled, thousand-yard stare-ish instrumental ‘West’, as well as in the tender and tenative finale, ‘Libby’s Lullaby’.
Strong songwriting, delicately arranged using innovative percussion, true to the spirit of Country & Western, yet made in Manchester, it’s one to hear; one to endorse your frontier-like tastes, or change your mind about the genre for the better. Impressive and deceptively simplistic, there's no shortage of charm either.
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