Jim McAteer is well-kent on the Glasgow live scene, and has appeared on numerous stages over the years…
This debut album (released back in February!) collects a number of his best-known songs, played with a great backing band.
Jim’s slightly Elvis-esque intonation wells suits the first couple of tracks ‘Talk to Myself’ and ‘Sing Me A Song’…
Most of the material is quite introspective, led by acoustic guitar, sometimes just the guitar, like ‘What’s on Your Mind?’
The band (violin, drums, bass and other guitar, plus backing vocals) comes into its own on tracks like ‘Wouldn’t That Be Grand?’, which branches into country/polka, and is very droll indeed…
‘The Everything Thing’ is another country-tinged hoedown, humorous and catchy, while ‘Opening Closing Doors’ gets back down to the solo strumming, with Johnny Cash tones….
The band comes back for ‘I Don’t Know’, with a great female harmony on the later verses…
Most of these are love songs, such as ‘In Love with Every Atom’, another country shuffle with great fiddle strokes and plucks…
Towards the end we get a couple of previously released tracks, ‘Trouble Again’ and ‘My Antique Ladies Bicycle’, both great tracks, the former using the full thrust of the band and the latter having a great set of increasingly ridiculous rhyming lyrics …
Last track ‘Brand New Blue’ has a slightly more regretful vibe, a wee bit of Bob Dylan in there, classy!
A very enjoyable and varied record, with some great tunes and playing, topped always by JM’s distinctive baritone vocals.