It is a busy, vibrant crowd that take their seats at Sutton’s popular Sound Lounge in anticipation of hearing the launch of Matt Owens’ newest album – ‘Way Out West’ – the follow-up to the ex-Noah & The Whale member’s second album ‘Beer For The Horses‘. He is joined on stage with his current band – The Delusional Vanity Project. Matt’s introduction, as ever these days, highlights his passion for his music, but also his conviction to continue in his drive to change the current London-centric base for Americana music towards the South-east of England in general and to Bath in particular.
What follows is a twenty-song adventure into the heart of modern alt-country, blues and Americana. Whilst advising that the evening would be split between an acoustic and an electric set, this writer found it hard sometimes to differentiate!
The opening acoustic set begins with the nostalgic ‘Twickenham Station’. A slow bluesy paean, name-checking the likes of Elvis Costello, Rod Stewart, The Rolling Stones and The Who. The harmonica playing is reminiscent of Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ period. We also hear, for the first time, the silky guitar playing of the magnificent James Jack. We hear more great guitar playing a few songs later when the magnificent Keiron Marshall joins the band for the lovelorn ‘Hope The Darkness Pulls You Through’. A couple of songs later ‘Both Sides Of The Line’ sees the tempo quickening with both the drumming and the organ playing turned up a notch or two (acoustic did they say?). Yet again, another great song that had me thinking of Green Day’s ‘Good Riddance’.
‘Cactus Flower’ from the 2020 ‘Scorched Earth’ album sees the band travel to Australia to take on the mantle of Tom Petty with even more haunting guitar work from James Jack. For the magnificent ‘Five Years into Marriage’, the band are joined by the superb Hannah White. A wonderful song cataloguing the gradual, seemingly inevitable break-up of a relationship. Poignant lines like ‘I love you – I’m just not in love with you anymore’ tug at the heartstrings.
The second set certainly sees the decibels increased commencing with the Willie Nile like ‘One For The Grapes’ (the opening track of the new album.) This really ups the noise level and the dual guitar interplay between Matt and James Jack is an aural masterpiece. The evening continues with the band trawling their impressive back catalogue and introducing more new tracks from ‘Way Out West’. These included ‘Death, Sickness and Heartbreak’, a number that raised the sound levels yet again. Matt’s guitar work again excelling. The drumming of Eddie John (excellent throughout) was particularly insistent on this drum-driven blues number. Further new tracks include ‘Glasgow City Lights’ where the previously subtle but subdued organ sounds of Geoff Widdowson (one time Danny and The Champs keyboard player) explode and drive on the whole band on this excellent tuneful and bluesy song.
A lovely evening, in a lovely venue. A great show showcasing an outstanding new album from an awesome band.
