As our recent reviews of artists such as Trent Miller, The Sand Band and David Hope & The Henchmen have shown, the depth and diversity in the home-grown Roots-Rock scene on both sides of the Irish Sea is surely something to celebrate right now.
Although I haven’t seen them play live to date, it’s clear that another name ought to be added to this list of highly-talented contenders and that name is MONORAIL. Initially envisaged as a solo project by Co. Tipperary singer/ songwriter Seamus Hennessey, bassist Don Rothwell, drummer David Tate and multi-instrumentalist David Murphy (also David Hope & The Henchmen) have since come on board to bring the band up to the rude state of health they display on their debut album ‘Sleepers’.
It’s a remarkably mature and compelling record and on its’ own terms sweeping opener ‘The Universe’ gives you some idea of their capabilities as Hennessey’s yearning vocal and Murphy’s swaying pedal steel come to the fore and some spirited Dave Swarbrick-style fiddling hotwires the end coda in fine style.
Happily, it’s merely the first of a dozen finely-wrought and emotionally-charged Roots-Rock outings we’re invited to take here. Another one you’ll quickly want to sign up for is the LP’S trailer single ‘Hearts of Gold’: the melting Gram ’n’ Emmy Lou moment where Hennessey duets with Gemma Hayes. Their voices tremble as they alternate lines loaded with hurt (“like an angel crying/ the rain pouring down...it soaks into my skin”) and Murphy’s pedal steel stanches the heartache with tourniquets of burnished silver.
Monorail’s versatility throughout is highly commendable. As the album stretches out, they convince whether battling brisk, on-the-losing-end Roots-Rockers like ‘Lost to You’, rolling numbers on Green on Red-style bar-room brawlers (‘Follow, Don’t’) or else stripping it back for plaintive ballads like ‘Perch’ where the bitterness in Hennessy’s voice is all too palpable as he spits “I built you a bridge but you knocked it down/ so I built another and you set it on fire.”
|
Another dimension is provided by the band’s winning way with dynamics. Propelled by its’ close harmonies, swampy slide guitar and the ebb and surge of Tate’s drums, ‘River’ actually catches the elemental surge of the song’s title, while the lilting piano and oceanic cymbal rolls on ‘Calm Place’ are the perfect pastoral foils for Hennessey’s vulnerable vocal and his desire to escape to a world where he will “sleep with the stars and hear the rivers run.” Perhaps best of all is the closing ‘The Spy’ where they work up a hypnotic, almost Doors-y groove before upping the tempo and going for the emotional burn one last time.
Containing beautifully-crafted songs, concerted bouts of beefy Roots rockin’ and plenty of atmospheric intrigue, ‘Sleepers’ is a marvellous debut. On their mission to bring the finest self-penned Folk-Roots sounds to a wider audience, Monorail are most certainly on track.
Monorail online
Monorail on Facebook
|
