On his solo debut ‘Always Everlong,’ Ewan McFarlane comes up with some assured, rocking Americana.
There seems to be an ongoing questioning, the ‘chicken/egg’ style one, whether Americana is part of rock and roll or vice versa? Actually, who cares? There are so many instances when they overlap or merge into one another that it doesn’t really matter. What does is whether that overlapping sounds any good or not.
The task of making such music work can be sometimes turn out to be harder if you’re not originally from the North American continent. The complicating factor goes up a notch if you actually turn to the Americana/rock hybrid coming from an electro-rock band! So, the stacks are piled up high for Glasgow’s Ewan McFarlane, a former member of Apollo 440, and his debut solo album ‘Always Everlong.’ Listening to it, you simply forget about McFarlane’s dual ‘non-Americana’ background. With tracks like ‘I Know That You Know’ you only get the feeling that he either had that rocking Americana feel in him all along, or he learned it quite quickly.
Does it matter? Not really, because McFarlane’s previous musical experience obviously equipped him to go through these twelve Tom Petty/Bruce Springsteen-styled songs with ease and aplomb, adding that personal touch to make them sound like his own, adding the traces of his actual background as on the ‘Northern Star.’
Essentially, ‘Always Everlong’ turns out to be an assured and uplifting debut.
