Fort Macleod songwriter John Wort Hannam has gone Celtic on his brand new CD “Brambles and Thorns.”
A lot of that is because of fiddler Scott Duncan who comes to the fore from the first track “Great Lakes.”
Multi-instrumentalist John Ellis also contributes to the Celtic feel by playing mandolin, guitar, banjo, piano, melodica and much more.
The result is a really beautiful CD of Celtic tinged folk, heartfelt stories from the heartland of Alberta.
He sings about variety of things including the joys of playing music to rural love songs and a lot of stories about living on the prairies. He also sings a couple touching numbers, “Nothing At All,” about a veteran suffering from Alzheimers and another one about a friend of his who died from Lou Gehrig’s Disease, “Beautiful Friend.”
Throughout the CD Hannam uses a lot of poetic rural imagery which puts the listener in the song with the characters, especially “Way Out Here,” while Duncan’s fiddle just soothes the soul.
The CD was recorded in Leeroy ’s studio Rebeltone studios, so there are a lot of familiar faces playing on the CD as well including Stagger’s band, guitarist Matt Robinson and bassist Tyson Maiko. They also have a couple special guests including Jen Lane adding background vocals and Brooke Wylie who sings a duet as well.
The duet on “Memphis is gorgeous.” He picks up the tempo on the highlight “Damn Tattoo,” which an upbeat fiddle absolutely shines on.
There aren’t any drums on the entire CD which is interesting, but the songs don’t need them. There are plenty of catchy rhythms locked down by the other instruments, which make the whole thing sound like it was recorded in a warm basement on a chilly winter night.
Leeroy Stagger recorded “Radiant Land” as the title track for his latest CD, however it is rerecorded on John Wort Hannam’s CD.
Hannam’s version is more laid back with some mournful fiddle, some understated steel guitar and some tender fingerpicking.
The fiddle and some sad dobro sells the beautiful “Beautiful Friend” about Hannam’s friend Ken Rouleau, who passed away from ALS and who Hannam dedicates the CD to.
— By Richard Amery, L.A Beat Editor
CD: Brambles and Thorns
Artist: John Wort Hannam
Genre: folk
Record Company: Borealis
