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Review: 'GAMMAGE, PHIL'
'Used Man For Sale'   

-  Label: 'Prefab International'
-  Genre: 'Blues' -  Release Date: '4th October 2016'

Our Rating:
This is Phil Gammage's 8th solo album and continues in much the same vein as 2014's Adventures In Blues Land. The record opens with the mellow, back porch blues Arms Of A Kind Woman who envelopes you in her arms and you can see that train in the distance as Phil's rich voice whispers in your ear.

Maybe Tomorrow is a redolent ballad that is made all the more poignant by Michelle Butler's backing vocals and the wonderful piano playing. This sounds like it's deep in the woods music. I Beg Of You starts with the double bass walking you across the room ready to start begging and pleading for the love Phil so badly needs and the love he needs to leave. I picture him sitting with a glass of whiskey and a stogie waiting for her return at 4am. Will it end well..?

The title track is more of a walking blues looking back at a life well lived and what he may or may not have achieved. Ride With Railroad Bill is a good old-fashioned murder ballad on a train slow and deliberate as it snakes through the yards in the middle of the night.

Feeling The Hurt is all rueful after you've been dumped and left on the kerb with a bag and told to take a hike blues song to tear your heart apart. Before I Leave is of course that last statement before you walk out on the one you once loved.

Tenderloin is a brisk walk through that notoriously great part of San Francisco with a good look at the barflies as you stagger by. We then get Lost In Loserville. I seem to remember this being a few blocks from the Tenderloin as we are down but not quite out and in need of just one more drink to make all those woes go away. Or else we'll just have to go dabble with the spoon once more.

The album closes with Staring Out Our Window as things look like they are going well for a change and, damn, if things aren't so bad after all. Let's face it if you've got another excellent Phil Gammage album on the decks, so how bad can things be!!??


Find out more at Phil Gammage online
  author: simonovitch

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GAMMAGE, PHIL - Used Man For Sale