JOHN HINSHELWOOD - Lowering The Tone

Our home grown album this month is from JOHN HINSHELWOOD, who has been part of the scene for many years, through bands like Honest Sam & The Dealers and The City Sinners, as well as a solo act.
Like his previous albums, most of the songs on his latest album “Lowering The Tone”, are self penned, and the musicians on the albums are the same team that you’ll see joining John on stage at a live gig. They include steelie Malcolm McMaster, guitarist Tim Black, Ed McGlone on bass, Frank McHugh on drums, and harmony vocalist Kathy Stewart.
Gram Parsons still has a major influence on John’s music, most evident on this album on “A Few Shallow Moments”.
“American Lifestyle” is a fun sounding number, with strong harmony (I’d actually say duet) vocals from, Kathy Stewart. It also features some neat banjo. Kathy is also quite evident on the album’s opening track, “Radio Angel”.
“What’s Left Is What’s Right”, is also an uptempo catchy number.
In contrast, a few tracks like the 71/2 minute epic “A Poet’s Life” is quite a strong ballad. The same can be said for “Look Back In Anger”, one of John’s older songs which fits nicely into this collection.
A few of the tracks have quite basic arrangements, such as “Little Rowdy”, which only features John on acoustic guitar and Iain Barbour on lap steel.
Two of the songs are not from John’s pen. They include an interesting version of “Crying In The Rain”, and a cover of a Pure Prairie League song, “The Cost Of Doing Business”. Great to see hear it recreated here.
A good album from one of Scotland’s leading singer songwriters.
Well worth checking out.
John will be talking about the album on Celtic Music Radio and Dunoon Community Radio on Sunday 8th June between 12-2pm.
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