David Francey- The Waking Hour (Jericho Beach Music) (WWWWW)
One of Canada's greatest songwriters- if not THE greatest songwriter- is
Scottish-born, Toronto-raised David Francey, who recently came off a second
straight Juno win for his excellent 2003 album "Skating Rink". The
title track was featured prominently during the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation's "Hockey Night In Canada", and the rest of the album
featured timeless classics such as the soon-to-be wedding favourite "Come Rain Or Shine".
Following up the album is “The Waking Hour”, recorded with three of his
friends from Nashville in Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch and Fats Kaplin and released
on Jericho Beach Music instead of on Francey’s imprint Laker Music. “The Waking
Hour” was an experiment put forward by Kane, Welch and Kaplin, with just “Four
chairs in a circle, a few mikes, a great engineer, and that was it. No overdubs
to speak of, just playing and singing and catching it all for posterity.” (http://www.davidfrancey.com/tworecords.html)
The album took only a few days to record, with the process repeated later by
just Kane, Welch and Kaplin for Kane’s and Welch’s “You Can’t Save Everybody”.
The results could not have been better. “The Waking Hour” is Francey’s
most focused, timeless and emotive work yet, which is an accomplishment
considering his previous work was also just as great. The highlights here are
numerous- there is the desperado-like tone of “Morning Train” and “Highway 95”
for example, as well as the awe displayed on “Fourth Of July” (about the first
anniversary of 9/11 in the U.S.) and the tale of the hangover on “Sunday
Morning”. I could list more but I don’t have the space.
The best song here, though, is “Wishing Well”, a song about the death of
Timothy McVeigh. Here, Francey displays his anger at the media circus
surrounding the execution, equating it almost like the bloodlust that occurred
at the Roman Coliseum. “I should feel compassion, I know I should/I don’t know
if his dying does any good/He was as good as gone when the building fell/When
they ran out of wishes at the wishing well”, Francey sings, condemning the
death penalty as much as he condemned what McVeigh did (at least one could
argue that). “Lying on his back, eyes open wide/And the prick of the needle and
the silent slide/The Press lined up, with their stories to tell/How there’s no
more wishes at the wishing well”, Francey continues on. It may have been over
three years since McVeigh’s execution, but the anger rings just as true today
as it did back then.
Overall, “Waking Hour” is a classic, producing more classic Francey
songs with very coordinated and impassioned music by the likes of Welch, Kane
and Kaplin. It is more proof that Francey really is Canada’s best songwriter
and shows that he’s at the top of his game and will be for a while. If he
continues like this, he certainly will be remembered not just as a folk great
but as one of music’s greats. This is by
far 2004’s best album to date.
-DG
Review scale:
|
WWWWW- You can’t go
wrong with this |
|
WWWW- Excellent,
worthy of attention |
|
WWW- May not
change the world, but it’s still good |
|
WW- I’m not so
sure about this… |
|
W- Well, it makes
a great Frisbee |