So I hear this band playing in a small venue in Glasgow. Despite the limitations of the sound in the venue, I quickly figure out that they are worthy of investigation. They've got an interesting drummer for a start. He chops and changes tempo in the middle of songs - that's 4/4 to 7/4 and back for the musos out there. That band was Machar Granite.
Then their album arrives in the post. Oddly, it's not really like their live performance. Live, Machar Granite sounded more American than Scottish but that's not the case on the recorded evidence. That's almost beside the point as what they do really well is evoke atmosphere. This band are like storytellers in the folk singer way but despite ther traditional approach, there is also an urban feel pervading these songs. Not like a big city but more like a reflection of that feeling of dissociation that you get in the new towns like East Kilbride or Glenrothes. When they moved there, people took their history to somewhere that had no history and it all promptly got lost. That's a personal opinion of course but that's what a song like "Out Goes a Light" means to me. Singer Eddie Robinson's accent remains true to his roots throughout and that's a welcome thing to hear these days and as a bonus, the wondrous Lorraine McCauley makes a guest appearance on two tracks.
It's not a perfect album by any means - the sound is nothing special and the lyrics are sometimes inelegant - but it is an intelligent and warm album that contains songs that will have a resonance in the souls of many who may listen to it. I hope it gets the wider audience that it deserves.