Nick Charles
The River Flows
Black Market Music
Melbourne player
Nick Charles is one of the more considered guitarists in Australia. Never
flashy but always precise, his intricate playing has brought to Oz blues a
sophistication and depth that’s seen him admired not just in this country, but
around the world.
Deeply inspired by
the blues of old, Charles is also adept at all things folk and even country, as
his latest record shows. His eighth Australian solo record, 12th
worldwide solo release and his 20th overall, The River Flows is the mark of a musician with nothing left to
prove, but still displaying a wont to explore. The addition of Pete Fidler on
dobro and electric lap steel adds some exciting flavour, as does Paul Jones’
violin and Louis Gill’s electric and double bass – Charles has been, for the
most part, a solo artist, and so to see him explore with the added pull of
these fine accompanists, only adds to the album’s subtle power.
The album
centrepiece, the seven-minute ‘Penelope’, is an incredibly fluid piece of work,
an instrumental that both warms the heart and also manages to inject a dose of
melancholy to proceedings, a near perfect melding of country with the blues,
showing that Charles is merely getting better with age.
3.5/5
Samuel J. Fell
No comments:
Post a Comment