Following announcement of the largest Deacon Blue tour in over a decade, front man Ricky Ross has also added his own, intimate & personal tour to the 2013 agenda. Taking both Deacon Blue standards and Ricky's solo work, the playlist is an eclectic mix of pop, blues and a more political commentary on the modern age but it does nothing to alienate the casual listener, remaining open, honest and accessible.
Ricky has purposefully taken this tour back to it's barebones
of simple accompanying guitarist - the focus thus remaining on the music,
but he is not so pretentious as to believe that his 'messages' are worthy of
total focus, more that they just don't need any of the bells & whistles
& over production that could have been too tempting to ignore. The
stage at first seemed very large, but you get drawn by the music and the
conversation, as though meeting a long lost friend with whom you realise you
still have so much in common; so that by the end of the evening the intimacy is
quite startling. There were many times where I found myself perched right
on the edge of my seat, blissfully unaware that I was leaning so far forwards
as to be hanging over the seat in front.
The title track of his new album, Trouble Came Looking,
is quite conversational; an urban styled tale about the dangers
inherent in the appeal of acquisition (“I was just giving my kids the best of
all things when trouble came looking for me”) and how steep and slippery the
slope into over stretching and debt ridden angst (“don’t just say yes when somebody
tells you it’s free”). There are great comparisons between Ricky's
melancholic acceptance of the social ills of our current austere landscape and
those of the blues borne from previous depressions (Mid West, Wall Street,
Black Thursday) but fear not, this is not a depressing set, it is much more
powerful and thought provoking than pitiful wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The album is certainly worth a full listen - the pared down
approach to the studio performances sit equally with the live show, so much so
that it is refreshing to attend a concert where one and the same feel
& sound so alike. Faves must include "Any Drug Will Do"
which has a pseudo chart feel suggesting that in the hands of a dance/pop
promoting producer (Norman Cook, Martin Solveig, Calvin Harris) this could
easily become an underground radio hit. At the other end of the culture
scale "A Strange & Foreign Land" tugs on the heart strings as an
eye witness account of the Morecambe Bay cockle pickers drownings.
Fans of Deacon Blue need not fret; Ricky has not sold his soul
to the dark devil of Billy Bragg and Bob Dylan, but he has found another
persona with which to weave his stories and take us on journeys.
Most certainly worth finding the album, and, if you're lucky
enough to be in a town where the tour is showing, take the night off from
whatever you had planned and treat yourself, you'll thank me later.
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