Our Man In The Field‘s third outing is Alexander Ellis’s tribute to the America he knows and loves. Silverado blends cinematic songwriting, soulful vocals, and road-worn storytelling, expertly drawing listeners into the fictional world of a late-night radio station, WZR2 Radio Free Silverado, an outlaw frequency that transmits songs and stories into the ether.
If you’re going to try and make it in the music business nowadays, sometimes you’ve got to go for broke to present your compositions in the best possible light. Alexander Ellis of Our Man In The Field spent considerable time, energy, and money crossing the Atlantic to befriend Grammy-winning Tucker Martine in Portland, Oregon, on his band’s previous outing, Gold On The Horizon, recorded in 2021 and released in 2023. Ellis has been vindicated once again in his decision to bring in another top-quality producer, Guy Fletcher, for Silverado, their best album to date.
Pulled together over five days of intensive recording, with Guy Fletcher serving as both producer and musician alongside Alexander Ellis, the duo assembled a crack team of musicians at Mark Knopfler’s studio, British Grove. For Silverado, the stellar lineup includes Ethan Johns on drums, Nick Pini on bass, Will Fry on percussion, Robbie McIntosh on guitar, Sonny Landreth on slide guitar, and Mauricio Venegas-Astorga on charango.
Although recorded in London, Silverado celebrates songs about America from a non-American perspective. If there’s a through line to the album, then it broadly centres on a fictional late-night pirate radio concept called WZR2 Radio Free Silverado. Something of a clandestine midnight operation, the station transmits songs and dispatches from what the band describes as the “strange frontier where British melancholy meets American myth”. It’s clear that if Radio Free Silverado exists, it broadcasts an extremely eclectic range of material, as the songs on the record are stylistically all over the map – covering the full gamut from West Coast MOR to Celtic Soul, folk, reggae, R&B and ska. However, that’s not to its detriment: its tremendous arrangements, sophisticated production values, and the diversity of material on offer prove a constant surprise.
Opening number, Don’t Think, has a driving beat and some expert pedal steel from Henry Senior, underpinning a song whose lyrics have Ellis realising the need to live in the moment by giving any of life’s concerns a name before you “Give it to the birds and let them fly away”. A delightfully upbeat, life-affirming soft rock number, it contrasts markedly with the more soulful, laid-back groove of the follow-up number, Doing Alright, which features lovely filigree guitar work from Robbie McIntosh alongside a shuffling drumbeat. At the same time, Guy Fletcher’s Hammond organ has plenty of space to add its rich warmth to a song about the little pleasures in life that don’t require embellishment from either alcohol or tobacco: “Doin’ alright / Don’t want another drink / Don’t want another smoke.”
Ellis’s capacity to fully inhabit the lives of the characters in his songs is perhaps best demonstrated on Something Has Got To Be Done, one of the best songs he’s written to date. Taking inspiration from Jon Snow’s reporting from a children’s hospital in Gaza and a chance meeting between Ellis and the broadcaster in Paris following the November 2015 terrorist attacks, this number speaks powerfully to so much of what’s going wrong in the world today; its lyrics are appropriate to the experience of any foreign correspondent working in war-torn areas, their sense of helplessness and anger something that haunts their every waking moment: “How do I sleep at night? / How do I look my children in the eye and say ‘It’s alright?'”
The United States as a source of fascination for Ellis is fully captured on the album’s title track, Silverado, the country’s influences on him forming a litany of some of its key cultural makers, who are name-checked here – ranging from songwriters like Springsteen, Dylan, and Neil Young, to novelists like Steinbeck, film-makers like Wim Wenders, and artists such as Jackson Pollock and Georgia O’Keefe – although Ellis’s love of the culture extends to the more simple and demotic pleasures to be derived from watching a rodeo on MTV, or a Joan Rivers interview on television. Something of a celebration in nostalgia, this song also has a lovely self-referential quality in some of its lyrics which run: “Even the chords in this whole song / There’s only one place where they belong / And it’s a smoky dive, on the Lower East Side, back in 1975″.
A simple guitar figure opens Come On and repeats throughout the number. As with so many songs on the record, the understated vocals and arrangements give the band plenty of room to breathe and space to demonstrate their outstanding musical prowess.
Venturing into more jazz and funky territory for the song No More – with Guy Fletcher’s Hammond organ again very much to the fore – Ellis imagines himself as ruler of the world for the day, determined to exact revenge and mete out justice to the deceitful and those he considers most guilty of wrongdoing: “And all of those sinners who won’t tow my line / Those double-crossing double dealers gonna do double time”.
After the angry, discordant closure of No More, These Are The Days, a soothing breeze of blissed-out MOR comes in. The serenity this beautiful tune evokes, however, is paired with words inspired by Adam Curtis documentaries that explore some of life’s existential issues. Nevertheless, Ellis’s ever-present optimism in the face of the almost all-pervading adversity of the modern age is reflected in its lines: “Oh these are the days / And this is the time / To keep your chin up, and you’ll be / You’ll be just fine”.
Guy Fletcher’s extensive contacts list proved particularly handy in getting the likes of iconic former Ikette PP Arnold to assist on Simple Life, an exquisitely rendered countrified R&B number with pedal steel and Hammond accompaniment, set to an almost reggae-fied backbeat. Led by Ethan John’s drumming and Nick Pini’s bass, the song has a lovely, loose-limbed feel, with Ellis and Arnold trading some particularly effective call-and-response.
Celtic Soul and its blend of traditional Irish and Scottish folk melodies have long been a touchstone for Ellis, with Into the Mystic often cited as a key influence. Perhaps the album’s high point is the single Wall of Sound, where Ellis most effectively channels Van Morrison while avoiding the risk of lapsing into pastiche. Fabulous-sounding trumpet from Stewart Prosser and saxophone from Steve Grainger elevate this number, in which Ellis weaves a double narrative inspired by a chance encounter with an Arkansas truck driver whose life had hit hard times, alongside that of a Doncaster pub landlord interviewed after his business was set to close. The shared circumstance that connects both protagonists, separated by geography, is their deep sense of frustration and loss arising from their respective life-changing events; Ellis can take on the role of observer and reporter, his ever-positive outlook expressed in a countervailing melodiousness that carries the song through.
The softly sung, elegiac closing number, Smoke In The Wind, will inevitably draw comparisons to the Dire Straits number, Brothers In Arms, and the song’s strengths again validate Ellis’s decision to partner with Guy Fletcher for this album. On this song, Ellis goes all out with his high-pitched singing, perfectly matched to some slide guitar from Sonny Landreth.
The name ‘Silverado’ is tied to a historic mining town established in nineteenth-century California. Evocative of the rugged terrain of the American Old West, it also gave its name to the Chevrolet pickup truck of the same name, renowned for its quality and sophistication – attributes shared by this fine record, which deserve to bring Our Man In The Field to a wider audience.
Silverado (Digital/Streaming Out Now | Physical Release: November 6th, 2027) In The Field Recordings / Absolute
Upcoming Tour Dates
Supporting Chuck Prophet:
17 November – Chelsea, Vienna, Austria
18 November – Spitalkirche, Pfarrkirchen, Germany
19 November – Café Bar Mokka, Thun, Switzerland
20 November – Circolo ADMR, Chiari, Italy
22 November – Visioni 47, Alessandria, Italy
24 November – GC De Wildeman, Herent, Belgium
25 November – United Reformed Church, Oxted
26 November – St Mary’s Church, Twyford (Winchester)
27 November – Firth Hall, University of Sheffield, Sheffield
29 November – Whelan’s, Dublin, Ireland
30 November – The Black Box, Belfast
1 December – The Glee Club, Birmingham
2 December – TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands
Festival & Headline shows:
28 November – Rough Trade Liverpool, Liverpool
28 November – Americana 25 Festival, Liverpool
Headline:
22 January – Cluny 2, Newcastle upon Tyne
9 February – The Lodge at Deaf Institute, Manchester
10 February – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
11 February – The Louisiana, Bristol
12 February – The Hope & Ruin, Brighton
13 February – The Lexington, London
26 February – Saltburn Community & Arts Association Ltd, Saltburn-by-the-Sea