D. Mulligan (did his parents christen him Delores or something?) comes out of the Californian country scene and The Late Great Southwest is an impressive production courtesy of Tim Bluhm in the Gurf Morlix seat - playing, engineering, producing and probably making the coffee.
Mulligan writes songs about life near the bottom of the heap, about the events, dreams, loves and travails of ordinary folks' lives. His voice is suitably husky and sincere and marries well with some warm, resonant acoustic guitar playing. The full band sound has some lovely lyrical pedal steel from Tom Heyman, redolent of wide open spaces, and the Hammond organ sound, provided by Tim Bluhm, is something I can never resist. On the best numbers, like 'Postcard', 'Get Back' and 'Don't Wake Up', they all chug along in a very engaging manner, a familiar sound without being hackneyed.
Occasionally, though, they try for big drama: 'Miriam' is very sparse with picked acoustic guitar and Mulligan right up against the mic, singing his phrases with long - very long - gaps between them; 'Collapsible Plans' goes for the big atmospherics with portentous chords and more long gaps between the phrases. In neither case does it come off, for my money, which is a shame because these slower tracks are a drag anchor on the album as a whole.
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Mulligan's lyrics are pretty direct and work best in a straightforward setting. I can enjoy these atmospheric productions as much as the next fan of the bleaker side of alt country or whatever you want to call it, but maybe they go better with more enigmatic lyrics where there's space for the listener's imagination to roam. Mulligan does pull off the trick with 'Pace of Change' which is slow and considered without inducing impatience, but generally I would say it's the faster half of The Late Great Southwest that makes this album worth a listen.
(John Davy www.nessmp3.com/music/biscuitsandgravy)
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