An acoustic guitar strumming chords full of longing and
\nregret\u2026 a big lonely voice with rough edges that
\nendear\u2026 a set of songs more about mood than substance, raw
\nemotion than story-telling. This is Mark McKay.<\/p>\n
Taking up the American troubadour tradition walked before him by
\nthe likes of Woody Guthrie, Steve Earle, Neil Young and Bruce
\nSpringsteen, McKay distinguishes himself by drawing portraits that
\nare more impressionistic than naturalistic. “Constantine gardens
\nappear when you smile \/ Talk to me please, bring me back to me”
\ndoesn’t exactly get you from point A to point B, but set against a
\nsweetly rolling melody, it sounds wonderful.<\/p>\n
“Constantine Gardens” is one of three songs that actually appear
\ntwice on this mostly live disc. The first half is McKay with just
\nhis acoustic guitar and occasional support from the honey-voiced
\nKris Delmhorst, who doubles on fiddle and cello. In the solo\/duo
\nformat, McKay’s songs have a starkness that serves them well,
\nzeroing you in on his words, whose very precision obscures their
\nmurky subjects.<\/p>\n
The second half of the disc is McKay with a full electric band.
\nRather than simply filling out the sound, though, these
\narrangements transform the songs — much like with Earle or that
\nproto-Springsteen Matthew Ryan — into big, keening, rapturous rock
\nand roll . In this setting, McKay has the cojones to cover
\nSpringsteen’s “Atlantic City.” To his credit, it sounds great –
\nfull of all the anger and desperation the lyric demands — even if
\nit reminds you how much McKay’s mythic poetry on a human scale owes
\nto the Boss.<\/p>\n
Other notable tracks include the twice-appearing “Nashville,”
\nwith its wonderful riddle “I will not be a breaker anymore” – is it
\nthe abandoned woman or the remorseful man who speaks this line? Is
\nthe person who says it a heartbreaker? A wedding vow-breaker? Or
\nsomeone with the bad habit of breaking everything they touch?
\nRegardless, the regret that echoes through this song is palpable
\nand moving.<\/p>\n
“Long Lost Louise” is an evocative narrative of the wide open
\nWest, full of images of “sweating hills,” “green barns and green
\ngrass.” Right out of the American troubadour songbook, you’ll also
\nfind road songs (“90 Miles”), amusing story-songs (“Mercedes”) and
\na stirring electric, slide and vocals cover of an old traditional
\n(“Moonshiner,” also famously covered by Uncle Tupelo).<\/p>\n
\nLive From The Memory Hotel<\/i> also benefits from superb
\nproduction – this is as clean and well-mixed a live recording as
\nyou’ll ever find — courtesy of McKay and Jared Bartlett. Behind
\nthe dials for the studio album McKay is currently finishing up for
\nrelease — and which will feature many of these songs — was Roscoe
\nAmbel, who quite naturally headed out from there to play guitar in
\nSteve Earle’s touring band. Look for the new disc, and
\nMemory Hotel<\/i>, at
\nwww.markmckaylive.com<\/a>. You won’t be sorry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7028],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37970","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mark-mckay","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37970"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}