Steve Crawford & Spider MacKenzie – Celticana
Independent – Out Now
I guess that, after Americana, Canadiana and Anglicana, someone would come up with a Scottish variation, thus this second collection from the Aberdeen duo Steve Crawford & Spider MacKenzie. Recorded in Austin under the auspices of producer Chris Gage, Celticana also features contributions from Gage on mandolin, mandola and keys alongside the David Carroll and Kevin Hall rhythm section.
Musically, its roots are firmly embedded in American traditions, while the lyrics take their inspirations and narratives from Scotland. The album opens with McKenzie’s bluesy harmonica chugging its way through daily grind lament Whisky & The Stars, though, perversely, mention of autobahns sets this in Germany. As per the title, things wind down for After The Ceilidh, back on native soil for a sketch of post shindig life around the village hall, with whisky-fuelled young bucks strutting their machismo, the smokers gathered in conversation, and someone’s changing his luck for a one night stand. You almost smell the woodsmoke curling into the evening air.
More drinking and dancing is going down as the harmonica picks up the Nashville shuffle rhythm again for Each And Every Minute followed by the piano-backed Get Shit Done. The latter, a country flavoured ballad about not putting things off until tomorrow, the pace gathering to a rolling train-wheels rhythm, with McKenzie’s harp riding the rails alongside Crawford’s vocals.
They keep it calm for the mandolin plucked and Jackson Browne-sounding Sleepy Head, another song with a bottle and glass in hand, this time lazing into the sunshine and also drinking in the beauty of someone seen amongst the crowd. Next up, McKenzie takes centre stage for the first of two country blues harmonica instrumentals, the choogling Socks No Shoes (complete with whoops), the second being Bernera Blues, a wistful dusk-falling sway, titled for one of the islands in the Outer Hebrides.
From the title, Some Peace To My Worried Mind might suggest a Delta blues or gospel number but turns out to be a slow Celtic twilight sway, the narrator contemplating life and its better days as he sits “in a room on an island in the middle of an ocean”. At the same time, piano and harmonica underscore the melancholic frame of mind as “every new town makes me feel just little bit colder”.
The notion of the years passing carries over into the strummed, brushed drums Hands of the Devil, a more uptempo but no less reflective musing on getting older and parted lives. Perhaps inevitably, Glen Deskry brings things back to thoughts of home with a love letter to the Aberdeenshire valley “in the strath of the Don”. Recollections of building a home and sowing roots “in this sacred land”, nods to Paul McCartney with reference to a “long and winding road” that will “carry you back to where you need to be”.
Unintentionally perhaps, but, save for a one-word change, there’s another Beatles echo in the closing number, Let Me Be, though, after the peace sought earlier, there’s no comfort here. With simple fingerpicked guitar, McKenzie on mournful harp and harmonies, Crawford sings of how he’s “been down this road before” and found it “a waste of my time”, how, still tormented by the past, “when I try to fly away/My feet won’t leave the ground”, ending with the plea“just for a minute/Let me be”. Crawford may not find contentment at the end of the record, but rest assured that those who listen most certainly will.
Celticana is out now and available via https://www.steveandspider.com/store-merchandise