Homespun - Short Stories From East Yorkshire

More songs for whoever

The often-forgotten half of The Beautiful South’s songwriting team, Dave Rotheray, started his own group, Homespun, as a diversion while Paul Heaton and friends took time away from the pop charts. Short Stories… is the band’s third album, their first since the demise of the South, and has much in common with the more casual and country-esque elements of that more famous outfit.

Sam Brown’s quivering voice is perfectly suited to low-key laments and tearjerkers such as Memo To Self (which cutely rhymes “gorilla” with “serial killer”), My Sorrows Learned To Swim and The Screen Goes Black. There’s still a rich vein of humour to Rotheray’s songs, coupled with a winning eye for detail that frequently recalls Morrissey at his most self-effacing – albeit a Moz staring into an empty glass while propping up the bar of a seedy saloon.

Guest vocal turns from Mary Coughlan and Eleanor McEvoy give the tunes a healthy smidgen of modern folk credibility, as does the understated playing of a bang-up troupe of musicians, but it’s the warm wit and cold honesty of Rotheray’s words that stick with the listener. An unassuming and unpolished gem that shines ever brighter with every play.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Homespun Recordings | BHCCD 005

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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