A successful change in direction to a more soulful sound reaps its own rewards.
Silverado is the third album from British songwriter Alex Ellis, aka Our Man In The Field, after The Company of Strangers (2020) and Gold on the Horizon (2023). Recorded at British Grove Studios in London, it was produced by Guy Fletcher, who played with Dire Straits, Roxy Music and Cockney Rebel. Ellis and Fletcher and the musicians they have assembled together have produced an album that is livelier and much more soulful than previous releases, which works very well. As you listen, you are reminded of the luxuriating, welcoming r’n’b sound of some of Van Morrison’s music. It is the musical equivalent of a warm, comforting bath.
This change is heard right from the start on the swinging Don’t Think About It Anymore, with its chugging beat, twanging guitar, and great pedal steel from Henry Senior. It is a little bit of an outlier here with its country feel, although the steel is heard throughout. But there is no mistaking the soul influence in the next track, Doing Alright, with some lovely soul licks and phrases from Matt Owens on guitar and in the Hammond organ from Fletcher himself. On A Simple Life, vocal duties are shared with PP Arnold who started as an Ikette with Ike and Tina Turner, and then worked with many of the greats having a big hit herself with First Cut Is the Deepest. The track is funky and very soulful, with Arnold belting out fabulous vocals. Wall of Sound has wonderful trumpet from Stewart Prosser and saxophone (Steve Grainger) ringing out. No More has a jazz/blues feel, with raunchier electric guitar, and builds up to a storming ending.
Ellis’ words are usually about the personal, often depicting someone struggling: “Sometimes I don’t heed/the warnings…Sometimes I don’t get up/in the mornings”. Relationships are often imperfect- in Come On (Give it a little longer), he sings: “I never said it would be easy/ Never said I was good/ But I’m doing what I can/ Not what I should”. These Are The Days has a lush, spaced-out feel, with an electronic sequencer at the start and the cello work of Maddy Cundall coming to the fore. Ellis says that it concerns “the collapse of collective ideals and the rise of personal anxieties that increasingly define modern life.” However, there is a positivity to the words which is seen elsewhere: “Oh these are the days / And this is the time/ To keep your chin up, and you’ll be/You’ll be just fine”.
However he moves away from the personal on the title track, a light-hearted tribute to the American culture that has influenced him so much: “Hallelujah for the Stars and Stripes/ Give me a Diet Coke and some Lucky Strikes/Neon Lights and a Silverado”. The closer, Something Has Got To Be Done, with its slight Dire Straits feel, was inspired by Jon Snow’s reporting from a children’s hospital in Gaza. Ellis met Snow in Paris in 2015 and had spoken to him about “journalism, impartiality and the human cost of conflict”. Profits from the song will be donated to the War Child charity.
This change in musical direction has produced an album that is a great listen. You can only hope that it brings Ellis new followers and more success.
