Jackie McAuley - Jackie McAuley

Bigger than the sum of folk/ rock/blues/psych/country…

Every pop critic who’s ever reviewed this album seems to have complained that it’s difficult to pigeonhole – even to describe. Poor darlings: being made to think and react by the second-greatest singersongwriter to crop up in Them Mk I. Poor music fans: forced to take in the sweep of complementary Irish/American styles required to create an image of how it felt to be Jackie McAuley in late 1970 – immediately after the sad dissolution of Trader Horne, whose promise-packed, similarly wonderful Morning Way LP gained five-star favour in RC 362.

So what’s it like? Well, the big openers, Turning Green and Boy On The Bayou, could both sit on Gene Clark’s sprawling concept LP, No Other. Elsewhere, we’re talking broadly Traffic-ish folk-rock, unafraid to ruffle feathers by dipping into psych or blues, piano boogie (Poor Howard) or baroque harpsichord interlude (Cameramen Wilson & Holmes). Then there’s an Irish folk guitar piece called Spanish Guitar, and the stomping bonus pop 45 Rockin’ Shoes.

This baby just won’t sit still – that’s the beauty of the music and the mood. Definitions only diminish its unique personality; often contemplative but always uplifting.

Esoteric | ECLEC 2110

Reviewed by Derek Hammond
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