Aly Cook – Caught In The Middle
(SBD Music)
Reviewed by Tim Gruar.
If you don’t know Nelson based Country singer songwriter Aly Cook then you really should. Her latest album and third release, Caught In The Middle, is a brilliant introduction. Her music is way beyond your average boot scootin’ and Stetson wavin’ hillbilly ho-down – although there’s plenty of that in her sets. She’s a stalwart on the festival scene and most of her material fits the bill perfectly. You’ll always hear influences like Garth Brooks, Slim Dusty and even a little bit of Dolly. Yet, I think, her best is in the fringes when she’s channelling alt-country heroes like Lucinda Williams, Over The Rhine and Civil Wars.
Aly Cook is a multi award-winning recording artist, a consummate songwriter who tours internationally and nationally, including the length and breadth of Australia. Listeners may know her song Kimberley (off her sophomore album Horseshoe Rodeo Hotel) which was used in a TV advert to promote the region of the same name. The album it came from made our local Top 40 and racked up 6 number one hits on independent airplay based charts back across the ditch.
Cook has been a bit absent on the local scene lately as she’s focussed on touring Australia. And it was over there that established a writing partnership with producer and former Angels member Graham ‘Buzz’ Bidstrup and his wife Kay (who also founding members of 80’s band GANGgajang). Hunkering down at Asquith Studios in Sydney the three wrote, played and recorded most of the material on this album. And it would be fair to say that this album is more a songwriter’s collaboration than a solo effort, with the Bidstrups holding the pen equally with Cook on most of the tunes. The clean, respectful production treatment is also by Buzz, with mastering, etc by producer David Nicholas (INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Sir Elton John). Helping out are members of ‘The Tracking Crew’ – Buzz on drums, Rick Melick (keys) , James Gillard (bass) and the late Glen Hannah on guitar plus a few others.
The album rips out of the starter’s gate with a ‘Yee-haa’ and mighty rev, courtesy of Red Dirt Road Trip, which does what it says on the box. Inspired by a drive from Sydney to Mildura via the backblocks, it’s a straight forward blat down a country road with the red dust of the Aussie outback flaring up from the ute’s back wheels. Hence the name. Say good bye to the city, freedom is calling. It’s held together by Buzz Bidsrup’s deep alto guitar chords, summoning up visions of tires on the soil and the early moments of Willy Nelson’s Dukes of Hazard Theme tune.
In contrast, First To Throw A Stone is a slower, thoughtful morning after ballad. Originally conceived by Kay Bidstrup, it’s about letting go, as a relationship breaks down. References to ‘little demons’ under the skin remind me of those building niggles that we can’t forget or forgive, that build the tension. The infectious chorus is a perfect earworm, but underlies the more serious theme, reminding us that nobody’s perfect, so we need to reconcile more often. It does no good to hold it in.
The title track has a very sobering back story. This is about friends who narrowly missed a terrorist bomb attack, by choosing to turn left, instead of right when they leave their hotel. It’s one of those inexplicable points in life that make you thankful. And question ‘What if…?” The song was written in Australia during the Christchurch Mosque attacks, so has even more meaning. This gutsy bluesy track contrasts “narrow streets, made of stone” with “Coffee and Cake, pictures home”. The banalities of tourist travel, juxtaposed with “a window blowing away” and “the noise and then I hear quiet” (the eerie silence of the aftermath). The fear is not immediately realized in the upbeat of the music, unless you listen closely – then it’s chilling.
My favourite track on this album is a Lucinda Williams cover (from her brilliant album Essence). Cook surprises me by ditching her ‘country lilt’ and dropping an octave, sounding rougher and more worldly. Alongside John Kaldor’s haunting pedal steel, it’s a both a love and a yearning song of hope and loss. Williams does it as a desperate stalker song, Cook brings it back a notch but still does it a perfect justice.
The one track I found a little ‘naff’, at least on first listen, was the campfire ballad Prize Ribbons – perhaps ‘cos I’m a townie. Cook, understandably, loves her horses and this is a tale of Henry, who alongside his wife, dedicate their lives to raising them. It’s a dual love affair between the couple and their breeds and a song that looks back on a life of breeding and the special relationships that’s developed. And, I learned, her own prize ribbons really do tie back Cook’s curtains, nowadays. Co-writer Allan Caswell adds a touch of Slim Dusty into the mix, appropriate given the idea came from a writing session up in the Blue mountains.
Hold Me one that will grow on you. I didn’t realize to the third listen that our very own Sharon O’Neill features on backing vocals on this cautionary tale about a one night stand with a ‘super star’. Cook calls this a ‘pretty airy’ song, which it is, helped along by the violins from a man with the best name in string sections: George Washingmachine (true story).
A second cover, this time by Kasey Chambers. The sultry swagger of Am I Not Pretty Enough? is the likely #MeToo moment on the album, challenging why a singer has to fit the stereotype to sell well in a tough commercial market. To bookend this one is We Hold Up Half The Sky, is Cook’s own statement of female empowerment, and a strong one at that!
And a third cover, from John Prine completes her tributes. Prine wrote Angel From Montgomery from a female’s perspective, with Bonnie Raitt doing the best version I’ve heard. John Abo helps out Cook on this faithful rendition. It’s not bad, and would definitely work well live, but nothing compares to the original.
One of the most ambitious songs on the album is also one of the best. The Garden Swing is a kind of bush ballad about a desperate, poor young Irish couple who are separated when one is caught stealing and transported to Australia. Her partner, realizing this, also gets arrested and sent to Sydney hoping to find her. After years of searching they finally reunite and build a duplicate of the garden swing they had originally had back in Ireland, this time out of gum tree branches. The swing is a metaphor for holding on to a dream, no matter what. The band, bolstered by George’s violins, and some very pretty female vocals courtesy of Cook and Kay Bistrup paint a vivid, memorable picture that’s timeless.
A surprise lullaby-like tune called Sunflowers features a few snippets of French, inspired by her French Swiss mother and a recent road trip with her daughter’s French exchange student. The phrase “Je Vois Tournsol” (I love sunflowers) makes me think of the French Impressionists, a happy image to accompany this jolly tune.
“This album has been a bit of a journey, as all albums are,” wrote Cook in her liner notes. The joy of creating and recording was tempered by the passing of Kay Bidstrup’s good friend, guitarist Glenn Hannah, who played on most of these tracks. So, it’s fitting that the closer Cold Wind, a song written and recorded by Kay on her piano during a reflective, windy, wild, Sydney day should be dedicated to him. It’s a haunting, delicate anthem that comes late on the album, as a reminder of our mortality. The harmonies that complete this song are the stuff of goosebumps and shivers.
I said at the start that Aly Cook was a Country artist. By the end of this album I find myself doubting that. I’m also wondering why she’s not better known by the trendsetters on radio and in the media. Her voice is veracious and poignant, a skilled songwriter that makes music worth a listen, and returning to again and again.
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