- The Coal Porters: Los
London (Prima Records, SID004)
- As usual Sid scores no points for player
utilisation with 5 people involved in producing
this second full-length album, and a whole squad
of guitarists, drummers and keyboard players
making contributions. That said, this is, I
believe, a better produced record than 'Hope
& Crosby' with a greater feeling that the
songs belong together, something that doubtless
comes from the fact that the majority of the
tracks are fairly recent recordings made with the
current line-up and/or John Bennett.
-
- Me. Here At Your Door: The
single, video, book and T-shirt from the album
(if only!), this is the first of at least tracks
which could easily be issued as commercial
singles with some degree of success, albeit given
the vagaries of record company promotional
activity. The track has a great guitar hook and
excellent backing vocals from Pat McGarvey, and
is a very strong introduction to the album.
- Crackin' At The Seams: This
track, remixed from the Town South of Bakersfield
compilation gets its first formal release here.
It's always been a great song and hearing it, you
can tell why - superb piano from Andy Kaulkin,
Chris Buessem's banjo along with great lyrical
wordplay and the country feel make it an instant
hit on the LP.
- Chasing Rainbows: Co-written by
Pat McGarvey this is one of the newer songs and
quickly grows on you. Bob Stone's Hammond organ
and Pat's backing vocals lend the track a 60s
feel to it and I can see this being a popular
track on the band's gigs this Autumn.
- A Woman To Love: One of the
older songs and probably the closest to the Long
Ryders' sound this features some marvellous
harmonica from Sid and powers its way straight
into the memory. Notable at least for the line,
"The future Mrs Griffin's out there/The
future Mrs Griffin's somewhere".
- Apple Tree: Dug out from
obscurity by Sid, this Gram Parsons' song is only
available on some hard-to-find Johnny Rivers
album (I think), this track at first does not
strike you as being particularly strong, but
Sid's vocals and Kate St John's cor anglais soon
get into your blood (similar in fact to November
Nights) and will become another popular song
live.
- It Happened To Me: Prefaced by
an excerpt from an LA radio show, this is another
of the older songs and features Greg Sowders on
drums along with some great sax. I never
particularly liked this song previously but it's
a real rocker and will go down a storm at
upcoming gigs.
- Santa Mira: Written By Bob Stone
and Pat McGarvey this 3 minute instrumental has a
very Spanish or spaghetti western feel to it with
some lovely guitar work from Wes McGhee on it and
Kate St John's cor anglais again adding something
special to a unique song in the Coal Porters'
repertoire.
- After It's Broken: This is one
of the other would-be singles with Dave Roberts'
drumming powering the track along, with the
ringing guitars only adding to the song's
strength.
- A Jacobite At Heart: The third
'single', this is another driving country track,
with great guitars and some wonderful piano from
Bob Stone and a typical solo from Mr John
Bennett.
- Someone's Gonna Love You Too: A
slower, older track, this track may well have
fitted in better on 'Hope & Crosby', being
more laid back than the majority of Los London.
Often given an acoustic rendering by Sid at solo
shows, this version benefits from the addition of
sax and flugel horn.
- Help Me: The introduction to
this song is very reminiscent of Neil Young to my
mind, with loud guitars guaranteeing a warm
reception at gigs. Features a fine solo from Joff
Lowson as well as some fine piano work from Bob
Stone.
- Ain't No Way I'll Be Your Cowboy: A
gentle song beginning with simple piano behind
vocals, the backing vocals are superb, as are the
harmonies. The song builds slowly to a wonderful
solo from Joff Lowson and ends with the extra
help of Dave Woodhead's trumpet and Mark
Wharton's sax, lifting the song to a climactic
finale.
-
- What surprised me most about this album perhaps
was the fact that, despite most of the songs
being relatively new to the Coal Porters set (ie.
generally within the last year or so), the album
quickly becomes familiar to the listener, so that
within two or three plays you feel as though
you've been playing it for months. It also seems
a more coherent whole than the previous album.
This can only bode well for the future, providing
the band can maintain a stable line-up over the
next couple of years to build on the strength of
this album and the effort that went into creating
it. On a less serious note I was pleased to see
that five of my nine 'probable' predictions from
the unreleased tracks (Issue 4) made it to Los
London, along with one of the 'possible'
selections - not a bad ratio! With the band
spending most of the rest of 1995 touring to
promote the album we can only wait and see what
plans they have to follow up Los London next
year. With any look we won't have to wait too
long. Until then, turn up the volume on Los
London and ENJOY!!!
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