Delaney Davidson lives the proverbial peripatetic lifestyle. Born in New Zealand, Davidson travels the world playing his guitar, imbibing the local culture and transposing his idiosyncratic observations into country garage tunes. If Davidson was American, he’d be prone to jingoistic hubris; as a New Zealander, Davidson’s narratives are dripping with pathos, irony and the odd splash of comic relief.
Bad Luck Man is Davidson’s latest album, released again on the Reverend Beat Man’s Voodoo Rhythm Records, and charting Davidson’s idiosyncratic journey through complex emotional pastures. The title track is a dark country noir journey from pessimism to optimism; I’m So Depressed finds Merle Haggard producing the local barn dance with heart-wrenching results. Time Has Gone is a haunting meander to the darkest recess of the flawed human condition, Another Man’s Eyes is adultery seen through the piercing eyes of Leadbelly and You’re A Loser is melancholia in its most endearing country form.
The Reverend Beat Man’s I Got The Devil Inside is delivered with pummelling jungle beat intensity; So Long grabs you by the hand and ushers you into a religious institution where only rock’n’roll can save your weathered soul. River of Misery is a gospel of emotional pain, I Told A Secret has murder in its country blues veins and I Had A Dream channels the psychotic beauty of The Beasts of Bourbon’s definitive take on Psycho. Windy City is a rollicking one-man band ride through love in Chicago where, for once, all seems good in the world; Something Of Your Own slumps down the other end of the romantic spectrum, staring indulgently through the bottom of an empty glass of bourbon.
It takes a rare artist to wade through the marshlands of human misery and emerge with a set of classic tracks. Delaney Davidson is one such artist.
BY PATRICK EMERY
Best Track: Windy City
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: BO DIDDLEY, REVEREND BEAT MAN, MERLE HAGGARD
In A Word: Despondent
