Excellent third album from multi-talented Canadian singer-songwriter.
Jack Garton has been entertaining audiences in British Columbia for several years, as well as touring and collaborating with a number of Western Canadian roots bands. ‘Original Skin’ is his third release as a solo artist. It features 14 tracks all of them written by Garton. Not only is Garton hard- working, playing upwards of 90 shows a year, he’s also incredibly talented. On this record he plays accordion, trumpet, piano, Hammond organ, mellophone and guitar.
The accordion features heavily on many songs which may lead the reader to believe that this could constrain the sound of the album. In fact, a critic wrote recently that, “Jack Garton will save the accordion”. However, to pigeonhole the sound in this way would be a mistake. Garton’s first musical loves were rockabilly and doo-wop, and these genres shine through, together with many other influences on these compositions.
The opener, ‘Watching Kurosawa’, is a paean to the Japanese film-maker Akira Kurosawa in which Garton relieves the tedium of his night shifts as a security guard by watching “Red Beard”, “Ikiru”, and “Dreams” on the security video. As Garton wisely sings, ‘Just remember: even if you love your job, It’s not gonna love you back again, So take time out to watch some good films if you can’. ‘Coming Back to Life Again’ is an acoustic song with an accordion riff, which musically could make it the cousin of Steve Earle’s ‘Galway Girl’. It’s an optimistic jaunty tune about renewal, as the seasons change.
‘Good Times’ is a song where Garton’s accordion is often to the fore of the music. It reminisces about childhood and youth but with the wise words that, ‘The good times look better from far away’. ‘Decoy Love’, ‘Good Times’ and ‘Berkeley in the Springtime’ are all romantic songs, which would have been at home on any jukebox in the 1950s or 60s, if it wasn’t for Garton referencing having to live in his van and closed circuit cameras.
‘Western Shirt’ appropriately is the most “country” song on the album, where Garton’s accordion blends perfect with the acoustic guitar, banjo, bass and drums. On ‘Hey Grandad’, Garton really hits his rockabilly stride, with some fine guitar and bass playing by Noah Walker and Steven Charles respectively, on this tribute to his grandpa. The tempo changes with ‘The Real Thing’ which just features Garton singing and playing piano as he poignantly sing ‘Sometimes the real thing is the same as the dream’. ‘Stovetop Coffee’ is an instrumental track which, with Garton’s excellent trumpet work and Walker’s “Tex-Mex” style guitar sound, could easily be an outtake from a Calexico album or feature on a future Tarantino soundtrack.
The album closes with ‘The Field’ which clocks in at 13 minutes. Garton recollects his school days and the field behind it where he used to play baseball. On his return to the field, there’s a little league team playing a game, which is unfolding with a ‘slow beauty’ like a ‘tea ceremony’, as Garton muses on a teenage romance. It’s hard to get a song this long to work, but Garton makes it happen.
This album covers a range of styles, and has a slightly retro feel to it. However, it’s a coherent body of work, which comes highly recommended.
