Some years ago Stew Cunningham wrote a song under his Leadfinger rock’n’roll moniker that described the end of his tenure in Asteroid B-612. An American tour in the late 1990s had started promisingly, before intra-band tensions boiled over into venom, spite and verbal recriminations. Listen to the Greenback Blues live album on Off the Hip Records, and you hear the anger in Cunningham and John Spittles’ warring guitars.
The Stew Cunningham of 2016 is a more philosophical, even sanguine personality. Judging by The Man I Used to Be, Cunningham knows it’s time to step back and cast a mature glance at the good, the bad and ugly of his life in rock’n’roll. Cunningham’s already set the scene for his narrative journey with the beer-and-denim classic rocker Champagne and Diamonds, and the Springsteen-inspired honesty of Heart On My Sleeve.
Older and Wiser kicks off with a nod to Lou Reed’s Sweet Jane; within moments Leadfinger is writing the proverbial letter to his younger rocking self, telling him to get over shit and maintain the faith. The session finishes with self-aggrandising southern rock passion of My Own Road, and you’re safely ensconced in Leadfinger’s glorious rock’n’roll world.
In a perfect world, Cunningham would be lauded in Australia as a rock’n’roll and songwriting legend of international standing. The fact that he’s not is a failing of popular understanding and the skewed economics of the music industry, but it doesn’t change the fact that Friday Night Heroes is a near perfect rock’n’roll album.
BY PATRICK EMERY
