Alan Tyler & The Lost Sons Of Littlefield - Alan Tyler & The Lost Sons Of Littlefield

Homegrown country that kicks serious ass

As frontman and chief writer of 90s Camden cowboys The Rockingbirds, Tyler flew the flag for Brit country higher and for longer than almost anyone. But pages of positive press and high profile fans Primal Scream and Nick Cave failed to translate into big time success. Back with a new band, he’s lost none of his lyrical edge or innate understanding of across-the-ponders Gram Parsons, Merle Haggard or Johnny Cash. There’s a self-effacing wit to Cross-Eyed Country Man and Hat In The Road, both understated strumalongs with nifty fiddle breaks, and some astute social commentary in Guns and Favourite Child. The album’s centrepiece, Middle Saxon Town, is pure genius. Tyler adapts the unwritten rules of American country songwriting to recall his own Home Counties upbringing with toe-tapping charm. It’s the sort of left-field curio that could become a massive hit if someone smart at started playing it incessantly at Radio Two. Musical appreciation is becoming ever more fragmented, and the blinkered public resistance to The Rockingbirds a decade-and-a-half ago may not be such a hurdle to overcome today. Let’s hope so, because Tyler’s attractive approach to a long-established, but intermittently derided, musical form deserves the widest audience possible. The first essential album of the year.

Hanky Panky | HPR 006

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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