Dog Trumpet : River of Flowers (Half A Cow) 4 stars (out of 5)
When reviewing the previous album from the O’Doherty brothers, Chris (aka Reg Mombassa) and Peter, I described what I saw as a “naive art” approach. I did not intend it as a put-down of their work as simple or childlike, but rather the opposite.
What resonates through their work – this new album just as much as its predecessors – is first a handle on the art of songwriting. In folk, pop, blues and just a touch of Hawaiian, they can do so much without ever making you notice the seams. These are numbers that move you without treacle, buoy you without false bonhomie and make you smile without gags.
Dog Trumpet’s songs sound relaxed and simple but that’s because all the work has been done already, out of sight.
Lyrically the album is much the same. Listen to the autobiographical tale of being laid up in the Wilson Home for Crippled Children, where “time would go slow but what did we know/got to learn to let go”, or the family history of Manchester, the hard-scrabble town of their mother left because “she was bright and pretty/and she wanted more”, or the confusion and pleasure of love and lust in Buttons Undone. What you hear are straightforward tales that are rich with empathy and heart. They contain an understanding of fallible humans you only get as a grown-up.
There’s nothing naive about the songwriters of River of Flowers but there is artistry. – Bernard Zuel, Sydney Morning Herald July 2010
LIKE THIS? TRY THESE Ron Sexsmith, Blue Boy; Ray Davies, Working Man’s Cafe
