CD Review – The Mountain Firework Company “The Lonesome Losing Blues”

Irish Mountain Music for City Folk

This album arrived in a week when I received 22 new CD’S and has very nearly got lost in dusty a pile that is in danger of taking over my office.

Obviously I categorize albums as soon as they arrive and THE LONESOME LOSING BLUES kept getting pushed to one side, as it was apparently some kind of ‘modern take on Bluegrass music’ by a band from Brighton, England; so hardly hit my radar.

Well; that was a huge mistake on my behalf.

Yes, there are elements of Bluegrass and Mountain music here; but you must also add a twist of Celtic Folk, a soupçons of Bed-sit Singer-Songwriter angst and the insight of a man who has known love in all of its forms (good and bad) to get somewhere near what The Mountain Firework Company have produced on their third album.

Poor Girl must have taken several turns in the studio, as it has all the hallmarks of a Delta Blues in the songwriting but the atmospheric backing track is atmospheric nu-folk and Gareth McGahan’s vocal style is pure Irish Folk and it works exceptionally well.

Daylight Robberyis one of the cleverest Folk songs I’ve heard in years; with a story worthy of Richard Thompson but sounding like a less raucous Saw Doctors – you will have to hear it to know what I mean.

Probably my favourite track is the delightful Lowwhich is a tale of a man with a bruised heart but the harmonies and enchanting banjo and fiddle interplay make it a lot less ordinary than it could have been.

The musicianship throughout the album is deceptively good; with subtle fiddle, mandolin and banjo solos enhancing every song they appear in and McGahan’s Irish lilt always stays on the right side of charming and never wanders into ‘fiddle-de-dee’ territory.

LONESOME LOSING BLUES ends with a bit of an opus called Tonightthat opens with a pseudo-classical introduction and takes us on a laconic stroll on an imaginary lovers walk with the singer and the woman of his dreams.

Don’t make the same mistake I did; find this album as soon as possible and discover your next favourite band.

http://www.themountainfireworkcompany.com/main.htm