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New Twang album – “Never too late”

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Hi chums

Outrageous self promotion alert…

I have been mucking about writing and recording some songs for, oooh, ages and have finally finished. The results are available here as a free download or if really keen you can order a real CD! Artwork by our fave Pencilsqueezer. El Hombre Malo makes an appearance on the title track too. It’s a tunesome mix of folk rockish numbers with an emphasis on the rock. Enjoy!

Never Too Late by Jonathan Roberts

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Comments

  22. Like the Hubester, I too have received the Twang album, enshrined in its glorious art. The content within is just as sunny and full of love. As Twang says in the notes, ‘I consciously embraced my own influences rather than trying to hide them’. Which gives me a licence to resort to throwing down some ‘reminds-me-of’ thoughts. It’s invidious, but we all do it, it saves time, it brings followers to the flag, it risks infuriating Twang… (hope not!)

    Firstly, let me say that is just a scattering of thoughts after one listen while cross-training this morning. Incidentally, I can exclusively reveal that putting on ‘Never Too Late’ while cross-training means that you will burn approximately 20 calories fewer than if one were to put on a Mahavishnu Orchestra live recording (trust me on this…), but the pace will be steadier, the outlook sunnier, and the time will seem to pass more quickly because you are diverted constantly by the movement in the arrangements, the lyrical flow and the melodic/harmonic ideas. This is a classy piece of work, and it leaves one with a feeling of careworn bliss rather than a kind bliss through perpetual intensity (the MO).

    I know from Twang that he had real difficulties in mixing this album, but the good news for the punter is that EVERYTHING sounds ‘just right’. The mechanics of the album sound effortless, the sound-world is entirely comfortable in its own skin, which means that the musical content can shine without obstacle.

    Overall, I would say that the ‘sound’ of the album and, in general, the style of the songs and arrangements recall most readily a particular clutch of British folk-rockers who embraced glossier production values and Laurel Canyon/US country-rock/FM radio influences in the later 70s and early 80s. I’m talking about Fairport Convention’s ‘Rising For The Moon’ (1975), Sandy Denny’s ‘Rendezvous’ (1977), Lindisfarne’s ‘Back & Fourth (1978), Barbara Dickson’s ‘The Barbara Dickson Album’ (1980 ), and the early 80s Richard Thompson Band albums, especially with Clive Gregson and Christine Collister. I would hesitate to put the late 70s Gerry Rafferty in there, because Gerry’s sound and songs of this era – while coming from the same Brit folkie meets AOR bag – are more ‘driving at night’, more claustrophobic and downbeat. Twang somehow exudes a glass half full vibe, even on his minor key numbers. Neither a good nor bad thing in itself, just an observation.

    Specific tracks bring to mind other artists or songs. ‘Ripe Apples In The Spring’ has a ‘Pink Island’ vibe, a vague cousin of Traffic’s John Barleycorn, or what Al Stewart might have written had he listened to Quintessence’s ‘Pearl & Bird’ a few times. ‘Like Our Love’ is the Eagles of ‘Hotel California’ jamming with ‘Rumours’ era Fleetwood Mac – in a good way! Twang associate Pip Hodge on lead vocal, and some luxuriant harmonies and Lindsay B-esque instrumental motifs, helps the F Mac comparison, while one can just imagine, when the lead guitar comes in, the faded denim and double-necked guitar of whoever it was in the Eagles who played the ‘HC’ solo!
    ‘Get What You Want’ – lyrically brilliant, catchy but profound – takes a dash of Full House-era Fairport Convention, with mandolin motifs and funky bass, and adds several handfuls of that thing about ‘playing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ all summer long’ (can’t recall who it was by). The organ sound doffs its cap at that bloke in the Attractions. I know that smorgasbord probably sounds ghastly, but the song is greater than the sum of these accusations!

    ‘It’s A Long Way Down’ is redolent in its melody (subconsciously no doubt) of, I think, ‘One Way Donkey Ride’ from Sandy Denny’s ‘Rendezvous’, with the addition of a more Americana feel in its waltz time, earthy instrumentation and Emmylou-esque co-vocals and backing vocal arrangement.
    ‘I Don’t Know’ is a real shot in the arm – a masterpiece from the hitherto unknown region between Jethro Tull’s ‘Song For Jeffrey’ and Dire Straits’ ‘Money For Nothing’, a region that might be located somewhere near the pre-Eliminator ZZ Top’s ranch. Who knew? Fabulous crunching guitar and harmonica!
    ‘Doing What I’m Told’ immediately brought to mind Richard Thompo’s ‘Wall Of Death’, in terms of tempo and sound palette. I should mention here that from song number one I was thinking ‘This voice reminds me of someone… who is it…? By song six the lightbulb had appeared: Clive Gregson! At times the similarity in uncanny. One cannot, of course, help who you sound like vocally. My pal Brooks Williams sounds like James Taylor. I’m sure his first 100 press reviews mentioned that. One just has to get over it… But with Twang, the similarity is underlined by the nature of his material, which is often also Gregson-like – and, like Gregson, even Twang’s should-be-downbeat sounds actually sound quite cheery. Even when Gregson sang ‘Ninety Miles An Hour Down A Dead End Street’ on a late 80s Ashley Hutchings All-stars LP (alas, not on YouTube) – which came to mind out of nowhere when I was trying to pin down the voice – it sounded like quite a nice thing to do…

    And finally, a reprise of ‘Live Our Love’ takes it from a stadium in middle America in the 70s to an All About Eve album a decade later, spooky, spectral acoustic guitars weaving around each other. And so, the Twangmeister leaves us, as we sit on a virtual veranda in the late afternoon, watching the sun go down over English meadows with a glass of wine and the feeling that, after all the hard-won battles of life, things maybe haven’t turned out too bad after all…

    Let us remind ourselves of the CliveGregmeister, and a man in sunglasses:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDs9xinQdIM

    • Wow Colin that is a fantastic evaluation. I don’t mind the parallels one bit – just being in the same post as those names is a blast! You have seen things I certainly didn’t – as well as some I did…the Traffic and AAE parallels were obvious, but I just thought WFT, go with it. Some of the others – Gregson, Quintessence – I’ve never even heard (though I did chat to CG at a coffee house gig in Nashville once). But your assessment of “late 70s/early 80s folk/rock from both sides of the Atlantic” is right on the money.

      I’m pleased you found it an “up” vibe – a few people said my last one was a bit gloomy. My aunt emailed me and said “have people been mean to you dear?”…so I did try to be a bit more jolly. ?

  23. A well deserved review – Ive heard these songs develop and morph over time and Colin has got the comparisons spot on (although Barbara Dickson is not one that I’d thought of before). Id be tempted to retire on the back of this one @twang !

    Give it a lis folks – forget its one of us and just imagine you are in a bar somewhere on the west coast back in late 70’s and someone just switched the juke on….

  24. Glad my thoughts didn’t send you apoplectic Twang! The ONLY disappointing aspect with the album is that you’ve used some kind of weird pseudonym instead of Twang…

    I thought the ‘up’ vibe was one of those natural things. You mean you’ve worked at it? Well, it doesn’t show (which is good).

    This clip, ‘Warm Feeling’ by Lindisfarne, 1978, is an easy one-stop-shop for anyone asking ‘roughly what does Never Too Late sound like?’ Okay, it doesn’t cover all Twang’s bases, but the overall vibe and some of the general sound palette is there: acoustic rhythm, a bit of harmonica, luxuriant harmonies, sun-down with wine after a hard day sort of vibe…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zoi3WmtcGec

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