{"id":44435,"date":"2016-03-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/six-day-hurricane\/"},"modified":"2016-03-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T00:00:00","slug":"six-day-hurricane","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/six-day-hurricane\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Day Hurricane"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOh, I really hope this doesn\u2019t suck\u201d is almost certainly one of the 17 things that ran through my mind as I prepared myself to listen to the debut album from Johnny Gallagher, a.k.a. John Gallagher, Jr., a very good actor<\/a> fresh off a featured role<\/a> on The Newsroom<\/i>. Co-starring in an acclaimed TV show and then making an album having of course often served in the past as a recipe for embarrassment, up to and including public flogging by piling-on mean-girl rock critics. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: this little s.o.b. is a serious triple threat. Not only is Gallagher a gifted actor and a talented singer (he\u2019s also starred on the stage in the rock musicals Spring Awakening<\/i> and American Idiot<\/i>), but damned if he isn\u2019t a one hundred percent legit songwriter, too. The nine-track, entirely self-composed Six Day Hurricane<\/i>\u2014so named for its lightning-strike recording schedule\u2014is shockingly good, full of smartly-crafted and powerfully performed tunes that stick with you like a hearty meal. <\/p>\n

The genre is Americana\u2014mostly upbeat, mostly electric folk-rock with country, retro-rock, and power-pop influences manifesting here and there. While Gallagher acknowledges Springsteen and Dylan as influences (and who wouldn\u2019t), his resonant, keening vocals bring Jackson Browne to mind.<\/p>\n

Album opener \u201cBessie, I Don\u2019t Blame You\u201d rides the tension of an a cappella electric strum for most of its 2:42, with a pair of raucous full-band breakouts serving as exclamation points toward the middle and at the end. The lyric is where the real gold lies, though, a hard look at the pros and cons of the single life: \u201cWhat they don\u2019t warn you about freedom is that it can be lonely as hell \/ Sure the world may be my oyster, but I am only a shell.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cTwo Fists Full\u201d rumbles through another sharp character sketch on the back of a big-boned rockabilly beat. Batting third, \u201cSarasota Someone\u201d is a lilting, loping, melodic country-rock tune\u2014think Jackson Browne fronting the Jayhawks, that electric troubadour vibe. \u201cNobody in NYC gives a toss about me \/ Nobody can spare any love\u201d says our narrator as he gears up to run away to Sarasota. (\u201cI had a good life once, but it all fell apart\u2026 We all get what we deserve\u2026 And if you won\u2019t be my accomplice \/ Then I hope someone in Sarasota will.\u201d) The deceptively bright melody gives a melancholy lyric about trying to outrun loneliness that much more impact.<\/p>\n

Next up, the gentler, even more lyrically dense \u201cDead For A Year\u201d features a strong, steady flow that takes on a little of that sleep-eyed Jonathan Foreman SoCal surfer dude feel in places. Rhyming his way through a haunted, symbol-rich coming-of-age tale, Gallagher casually doles out terrific lines like \u201cHeistin\u2019 all our kisses like they\u2019re works of art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar in velocity, \u201cDangerous Strangers\u201d features a thrumming electric propulsion and flailing rhythm section that turn a thoughtful self-examination into a bruising anthem. Gallagher then executes a neat 180 to deliver the solemn acoustic lament \u201cWhy Oh Why Am I This Way?\u201d \u201cMy touch comes with a curse\u2026 By the time we say goodbye, I\u2019ll probably just about have ruined you,\u201d says this introspective prince of self-destruction. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne Flower Short\u201d veers into rave-up power-pop territory, proving Gallagher can rock out effectively as well. Gallagher\u2019s guitar playing is the key to \u201cImagine U,\u201d which thrums along, powered by the tension in a steady acoustic earworm of a melody. \u201cI doubt everything about me,\u201d he declares before adding that \u201cI can\u2019t look at anything \/ Without seeing a million different ways it could be \/ Including me.\u201d (Artists of the world, I think we\u2019ve found our national anthem\u2026)<\/p>\n

Gallagher closes out this concise 34-minute album with the pleasantly surging roots-rocker \u201cThose Wild Woods,\u201d whose opening harmonica solo and nostalgic descriptions of \u201cthis boardwalk town\u201d immediately bring the Boss to mind.Gallagher is well-supported throughout this outing by the backing trio of Thad DeBrock (guitar, keys, producer), Conrad Korsch (bass) and Brian Delaney (drums). <\/p>\n

Bottom line, when the biggest problem your album has is that it\u2019s too damned short, you\u2019ve definitely done something right. Six Day Hurricane<\/i> is a thoroughly impressive debut by a gifted singer-songwriter whose biggest challenge may be finding enough time in his acting schedule to give his music the attention it clearly deserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":32666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9794],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-44435","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-johnny-gallagher","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44435","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=44435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44435"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}