Yes, British Americana band Red Sky July are back with their new album The Truth And The Lie. It's a fine follow up to Shadowbirds and should see them winning more fans for their nicely bruised country songs about love going wrong.
The album opens with Jet Trail,s a cool song featuring some very nice harmony vocals from Shelley Poole and Charity Hair about a fling with someone who always has trouble on his mind. It sounds perfectly pitched for day time airplay and has a couple of really nice twists on the guitar from Ally McErlaine, yes, as in Texas' lead guitarist.
That's followed by the title track and first single from the album which is about betrayal with your best friend and how you try to hide the lie from your lover. The song now feels really familiar to me as I've heard it enough times to be singing along to it and I'm sure live plenty of fans will be doing just that.
Taking Myself Back is a bit more stripped back with some nice mandolin as they sing about escaping from a relationship that has come to an end. It seems the narrator has decided to just up and leave with just a slight air of regret and they make leaving almost sound alluring.
In Black starts off slowly, almost at a funereal pace as an elegy for a lost loved one. It's as though they are pleading for a good cuddle and a cry to get over this one as they feel like they should be in black as they are left high and lonesome once more. The song is actually about Ally surviving a brain aneurysm it's no surprise that it pulls on the heartstrings. This song needs a real tearjerker of a video to go with it.
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Earthwards is an almost bluegrass-style song of yearning and learning from past mistakes. Dodge, however, is a great country dance tune about getting the hell out of Dodge and leaving that mess behind. It could have just as easily have been sung by Martina McBride or Carrie Underwood.
Long Time Dead is another song full of the need to leave and to remember you'll be a long time dead. It's slow and slightly sepulchral. Walking Country Song is a lot livelier as it namechecks loads of classic country songs that will be divided up between the couple that are breaking up.
Strathconon is a beautiful song about wandering around the highlands in Scotland. It was written with Beth Neilsen Chapman who adds a third vocal to the mix and it's a very nice song that sounds like it would work just as well acapella as it does with a band.
The album closes with Sway which is a song for, well, getting together with the one you love and swaying along to the music. After all the break ups on the rest of the album it's nice they finish things happily in love and swaying with someone special. Aaah!!
Find out more at Red Sky July online
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