Lecitihin: you never heard of it but you’d miss it …
Americanarama, the latest release from Kev Walford (of Kev & Kelly, purveyors of one 2018’s best albums Walkin’) draws on such a wide palette of styles and influences, and a rotating pool of Suffolk talent it’s surprising it all hangs together… but it does.
Shining Man’s spare acoustic picking and cello lead-line opening and minimalist plainsong mantra vocal conjure a melancholic vibe with a hint of Mersey march before blossoming into a surprise sun-drenched ecstatic close. Maintaining the Suffolk-via-Stanley-Park folky feel, So Long At The Fair has more of Jonathan Evans’ lush cello and penny-whistlish alto recorder from Finn Collinson as well as luxuriant vocal harmonies, while 1100 Miles features an almost-reprise of Shining Man’s acoustic and cello phrases, this time as part of a Genesis-y Harlequin-like filigree with taut vox and ostensibly bucolic lyric, topped with more sweet harmonies and a lyrical cello break.
The stirring Spiritual feel of Jordan has its own proggy link with a touch of Renaissance’s After The Gold Rush cover in Kelly Bayfield’s velvet-clarity a cappella intro: Paul Gillings’ mellow melodic Walton Mountain harmonica, cello and delicate harmonies accompany her building passion vocal to a bittersweet climax, aided by a nice chord augmentation twist.
Plunger might be imagining it (knowing Kev’s roots), but there’s more spirit of the North West running like a thread through many of the tracks: Wilburys flavours pervade the shit-kicking stomp of If I Ever Get To Houston with Mark Stuart’s twangsome guitar; the backwoods banjo and slide of Healing Heart; Breakfast At 8 (Fatty Arbuckle’s Blues)’s light-hearted moonshiner romp (with harp from Adrian Day this time) and even the driving chug of Kathmandu where minor/major shifts, an oriental spiced ‘Mekong midbreak’ and stylish harmonies (from among others Honey & The Bear’s Lucy & Jon Hart) suggest Graham Nash has joined George and the lads.
Renaissance-man all-rounder David Booth (who did the recording and mixing at The Recording Booth, and adds drums, bass, bvs and assorted other instrumentation throughout) gets a couple of co-writes with Kev: adding rock-edged guitar to the Native American chant-cum-field holler blues of My My My and taking impressive lead vocal on Tennessee Williams, a sophisticated, harmony-rich West Coast country waltz. Kev also yields the lead on Sell My Soul To The Blues, a sunny, relaxed 70s country stroll (evoking Pussycat… there’s one for the teenagers) led by Ella Spencer’s strong vocal, backed by electric guitar from James Hutchinson and Andy Trill.
The album title notwithstanding, there are two moments of could-only-be-English-ness: in the (anti-war? anti-something, we’re sure) vignette of Milk & Roses with its Christmas truce brass (Mr Booth multi-skilling again) and the almost Maccaesque whistling whimsy of 128 Seconds Of Love (it’s actually 48 seconds, trust a man to exaggerate length) that despite its brevity still closes with a lovely luscious flowering of multi-voice harmony.
OK, it’s not lecithin and Plunger don’t know whether it’s the writing, some overarching artistic vision, the spirit of all the musicians involved, something in the Suffolk water or what, but on Americanarama there’s definitely some kind of emulsifying agent that binds all the disparate elements and different contributors into a glossy, satisfying whole. Lovely stuff.
Americanarama will be released on 1st April with downloads from Spotify, Amazon and all that lot, details available from www.Kevwalfordmusic.co.uk
