You are hereAlbum Review: Ian McFeron - Summer Nights (Self Release)
Album Review: Ian McFeron - Summer Nights (Self Release)
Experience tells me that the best way to approach new music is by listening to the songs first before checking out who the artist is, much the same way as I prefer radio presenters to keep the source of the record from us until the end. This helps us to form an unbiased opinion. So with this in mind, the sixth studio album from prolific Seattle-based singer-songwriter Ian McFeron was slipped onto the player shrouded in mystery and before the end of the play through, the names Ryan Adams and David Gray had already crossed my mind before reading the press release which unsurprisingly revealed these two songwriters as influences. Harbouring a slight sense of smugness, I returned to the beginning of the CD and listened again.
I'm not sure why Ian McFeron has until now slipped through my own personal radar, having already released five full length albums over the last eight years DON’T LOOK BACK (2003), A LONG WAY TO FREEDOM (2005), FISTFIGHT WITH FATHER TIME (2006), LET IT RIDE (2007) and LOVE ME BLUE (2009). For this sixth album, McFeron gathers together a new bunch of collaborators including Billy Mercer on bass and Brad Pemberton on drums, both Ryan Adams' sidemen past and present, Patty Griffin's guitarist Doug Lancio, who also produces, and McFeron's regular band mate Alisa Milner on fiddle and cello.
With a distinctive and clear vocal delivery, sometimes reminiscent of Lennon's raspy and heavily reverberated Rock and Roll period, McFeron's unambiguous lyrics tell each story with confidence and assurance, whilst the arrangements touch on everything from gospel, blues, soul and jazz, all within the overall genre of alt-country.
The thirteen songs were recorded in Nashville over a ten day period and stylistically border the rootsy Adams model with a pinch of Gray's pop sensibility. Whilst the album's jaunty opener Shine a Little Light presents the notion of walking the streets in the twilight in search of hope, a theme that appears to resonate throughout the album, Your Still On My Mind, My Old Lovers and the alluring Streetlight Serenade demonstrate a tender yearning for love. With six albums now in the bag, together with plans for an extensive three month US tour, we may see McFeron arrive on these shores in due course.
Allan Wilkinson
Northern Sky
.JPG)
.JPG)