Trying to keep the pace up here. As it is the famous race week here in Galway, that is proving somewhat difficult to do. Anyway to the music. I have always been a big fan of backing band names; the heartbreakers, The Reluctant Prophets, the Band. And on this blog so far we have had the Innocents, The Rats, The Union and now Paul Creane's backing band.Paul has added another great backing band name to the collection the Changing Band!
Paradoxically,the Changing band members seem to be fairly consistent in their presence in the band. The music of Paul Creane & The Changing Band started out as a solo project of Paul Creane's but the nature of the project soon brought a number of multi-instrumentalists into the making of the début album "Tommy Black and the Twelve Days of Lucy”. The band now consists of 8 members incorporating a lot of different instruments. I'm glad that the band includes a trumpeter. They aren’t half as common enough in americana bands. The music of Paul Creane is pure, straight-up americana. Lovely constructed songs with some atmospheric lyrics.
One of the highlights off the album is "All For You Baby". This is a perfect little cut of americana pop. His voice has a gently soothing tone. That combined with the excellent Dobro and distant backing vocals combine to make this a perfect summer’s day song.
The album title ("Tommy Black and the Twelve Days of Lucy") sounds like a murder ballad waiting to be written! And the album does feature some grim titled tracks such as "Hired Gun" and the opening "Take a Gun and Shoot Her". But while most murder ballads are constructed with a general wrong-place, wrong-time story arc, “Take a Gun and Shoot Her" is much more sombre. Here Paul's hushed tones add menace to the melody which is slowly paced supported by soft bursts of trumpet and haunting backing vocals. I think it's a sign of a good band that can switch between pop and ballad as demonstrated on these two tracks.
"Tommy Black and the Twelve Days of Lucy" can be purchased on Itunes. I recommend you sample the whole album on Soundcloud. There are some excellent tracks there. The usual Facebook and official site is where you will find all updates and relevant information. Now I'm off to do a backing bands crossword.
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