Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The diary of a person who has lived an interesting life is always so much more fun and enlightening to read but without having the nose to root through someone else’s life, be they alive or having left this mortal coil for enough time to make a journal bearable reading, the next best thing is to listen to an album by someone who has a tale to impart.
Dave Clemo’s latest album Hard Times, not only seems to allow the listener in some of the man’s most private thoughts and contemplations of life but each song is carefully crafted to consider what the listener might find stimulating and applicable to a life well-travelled. In the background is the unspoken elephant in the room, the thoughts of a man of a life and the health scare that makes this album, not just a travelogue but the assured writings of a man determined to get his side of the story down, to be open and honest and let all doubters take their noses elsewhere.
The album itself seems to cross between the luxuriant tones of Johnny Cash and the quiet burning anger of Hugh Cornwell, the exotic mix of country, typified in a musician who has roots in the Celtic county of Cornwall and lyrics that see through the mist of both life and time are a thing of beauty, and whilst some of the subject matter might hit a little close to home, nevertheless the honesty is outstanding, a real pleasure to hear.
With tracks such as the fantastic I Ain’t Quitting which gives the listener real hope for their own lives and the strength to keep carrying their own flag high and proud, to I Fought The Battle (You Won The War) and the haunting tones of I’m Too Busy Drinking for Thinking and the final unashamed thoughts of the beautiful Carn Gloose, these songs cut the bone in their raw and tender delivery.
Hard Times they may be but if you can talk about them in such a magnificent way and let the emotion come out rather than bottling up and stewing in regretful thoughts then the road that has been travelled and the road ahead are of the same journey. A great album by a great musician.
Ian D. Hall