JCH (UK) - Expatriated

Hear The Track Here

In our last encounter with Liverpudlian musician James Crosbie Hancox you may remember he had a shooter. What?? No dear, L-i-v-e-r-p-u-d-l-i-a-n, Lilliputians are the little folk in the story, Liverpudlians are people from Liverpool. Sheesh, can we go on now??? So, there JCH (for it is he) with Shooter (July 2010), an older song - from 20 years back apparently - but not too shabby for all that. Mind you, James has shown a very deft hand since I first came across him a while back with his one chord project Painting By Numbers LP (June 2010). It's a difficult enough task making songs up when you have all the chords but when you are going to restrict yourself to one chord per song, you are going to have your work cut out to make it interesting enough.

And that is where JCH (UK) shoots and scores.

By now, I am totally immune to musicians hyperbole about their tracks having reviewed several million that promised much and delivered very little. So I took the statement 'in the style of a cross of Johnny Cash and Ennio Morricone' (Ed: eh?) and 'railroad guitars and drums and spagetti western' with the obligatory sack of salt but you know what? It's a very accurate description. Now I loved the Man In Black and am a devoted fan of spag cowboy flicks so it's a given that I am going to like this, whatever the song. As I say, it does exactly what it says, warts and all. Sure the sound is a bit rough, but it's supposed to be, that's the nature of the beast. Think Pogues and you'd be well on the way...

None of which means much if the song all this contains isn't up to scratch and as I said, this boy doesn't miss. I mentioned the Pogues above intentionally because Liverpool and Ireland have a long and involved musical history certainly predating the Beatles by a good many years. Expatriated is a cross between Irish and English folk music, with the correct nod towards the more modern American version of course, and let me tell you its a hell of a song. More especially in the tone and content of the lyrics which, while I don't agree with his reasoning, I can't fault the conclusion. James Crosbie Hancox is a class songwriter and one you would do well to catch up with.

Nice blend of styles. Highly Recommended anti-war song.