Familiarity breeds contempt. That’s how the old saying goes, isn’t it? It is true that Lucky Bones’ album “Together We Are All Alone” has the mark of familiarity stamped all over it but the music contained therein deserves not contempt but admiration.
Taking “Together We Are All Alone” and “Longshot” as examples, I actually wondered if they were covers rather than self penned tunes by Irish songwriter Eamonn O’Connor, here moving his muse to the drier climate of Texas with those economically constructed songs, and indeed Mr O’Connor’s confident delivery of them, suggesting the work of a hardcore Nashville tunesmith on a holiday to find his roots. There is, however, more to this album with the intense burn of “Stand So Tall” suggesting instead a heritage equivalent to, say, Robbie Robertson while Mr O’Connor’s mushy romantic side gets successfully brought to the fore in “Frank Sinatra” and in the over the top tears in your beer sentiment of “Magnificent Mistake”.
Anyway, it occurred to me that anyone willing to write a song that references the guv’nor was destined to do well and, duly, there is a lot to like in “Together We Are All Alone”. A pretty good result for a debut album, I’d say.