On first impressions, I have in my paws a CD by Dog the Bounty Hunter – long hair, stubble you could strike a match on and over-large sunglasses though what you see isn't always what you get…
For a start, tracks like the opener, “Come A Rain”, and later “Marysville”, manage to make a lot from a little with stripped down arrangements and the simplest of structures giving the songs an indefinable gravitas. Central to the whole CD, unsurprisingly, is Kevin Welch's voice; melancholic and lived-in, as if his larynx has been sandpapered, marinated in Jack Daniels, then coated in tobacco tar. Unfortunately, this is a wee bit at odds to the production. The clean and polished production is a bit TOO clean and polished, with the feeling that the musicians are asleep at the wheel – autopilot engaged.
The problem with the album as a whole is that it never really gets out of 2nd gear. All the songs are at a similar slow pace, like the audio equivalent of continental drift, and with little contrast in the way of light and shade in the music, aural fatigue sets in fairly quickly. As a showcase of a fine writer (even if he is a one trick pony), this CD can't be faulted but, taken as a whole, it's difficult to sit through in one sitting and is in danger of being relegated to being put on as background wallpaper in 'polite' company. The two best tracks are left to the end but I doubt that many casual listeners will have stuck through that far.
Apart from the cover, Kevin can’t be compared to Dog; he’s more elder German Sheppard than hungry Rottweiler.