That he’s not a household name after thirty years of graft in the grimy music biz says a lot more about the vagaries of the public than it does about DAVE JACKSON’S output. Vocalist in no less than three tremendous Scouse Indie outfits along the way, (The Room, Benny Profane and The Dead Cowboys) quality control has never been an issue for Dave, even if wider acceptance has proved elusive.
As with Mike Badger’s new band The Shady Trio, Dave’s new project might just be the very best thing he’s put this name to as yet. Although he gets chief billing, it’s not strictly a solo album in the sense that sterling support is provided by Tim O’Shea and Shack’s John Head on a variety of guitars, basses, mandolins and organs and writing credits are shared between the three. However, we certainly have no hairs to split where the songs on ‘Cathedral Mountain’ are concerned. They are consistently excellent from stem to stern.
Over the years, Jackson has proved his worth as one of Rock’s best storytellers. Delivered in his charismatic baritone, his songs are always lyrically vivid and distinctive and his narratives on ‘Cathedral Mountain’ are amongst his most cinematically memorable to date. Musically, the trio conjure a series of layered, lush soundscapes, often tinged with Country and/or Folk and they finish it off with the occasional Spectorian touch or two.
Opener ‘In the Mud by a River’ serves notice that we’re in for something special. Over the deceptively sparse and undulating music, Jackson sings of a place “under sky-scraping pines” where “two men fight for a lover who files her nails and reclines.” It’s the first of several storyboards where murder most foul stalks the land, though death’s shadow wraps a variety of cloaks around its victims as the album unfolds. On the sombre, harmonium-led title track, poison is the key, while in the wonderful John Barry-hued ‘Red Car’ a lovers’ pact is sealed by arson and desperate escape. Or, as Dave so succinctly puts it: “what was lost in the fire comes back in the rain.”
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Elsewhere, Dave’s lonesome Hank Williams persona is given full rein on the fatalistic ‘Lone Hawk Hotel’, while there’s a direct link to the past courtesy of a sparkling, Gospel-doused update of the Benny Profane tune ‘Jerked to Jesus’: the cautionary tale of the sinister snake-oil peddling preacher Edward Pearson who suffers an equally horrific come-uppance. The record’s best chance at a single comes courtesy of ‘Going Stray”s burnished pop-noir, though the exquisite ‘At the End of Love’ – replete with gorgeously lonely organ, a redemptive little guitar solo from Head and one of Jackson’s finest-ever vocals - is the one as far as this writer is concerned. It’s right up there with the best things this woefully under-rated performer has ever recorded.
Dave Jackson, then, still demands our attention. Lyrically and vocally as strong as ever, he has built a mighty new house of prayer with his talented cohorts on ‘Cathedral Mountain’. I’d unreservedly recommend you catching one of his new hellfire sermons of a Sunday night, though you might want to think twice about sampling the communion wine he has on hand.
Higuera Records online
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