With his latest EP, Hearts
and Horizons, Scottish Born Malcolm McWatt addresses four emotions in four
songs - grief, obsession, loneliness and endurance
The EP opens with the
incredibly clever and emotive Raining Down In Nashville. Written in the
traditional story telling style, the song uses incredible imagery and dual
meanings. A phone call, bad news, crying until “my shirt was wet” and a cop who
tells the storyteller that “you gotta move on” – a message taken up and
emphasised in the harmonised chorus, reminding us that you have to move on from
grief and loss; the tears mimicked by the “rain in Nashville”. Its set to the
full musical array of a guitar, banjo and drums keeping the beat; whilst its
sad you will want to tap along. In true country spirit look for the silver
lining. Malcolm tells us that this song was influenced by the death of a
country singer in 2019, but the song could be about any kind of loss – it is
quite late on that we even get a clue what the news was in that phone call,
allowing us to interpret the loss in any way that we choose.
Lie For Your Love opens
with a long string intro with drums announcing the vocal. It is a soft voice, gently
explaining that this relationship is wrong, telling her that the storyteller is
not what she thinks he is, not what he is painting himself to be. Joined by Clare Portman, they beautifully
admit to one another that they wold do anything for the other’s love, steal
cheat and lie; leaving the question is it love or obsession?
The two artists complement
each other perfectly, there’s that steady drum beat in the background, a
definitely Malcolm sound.
That’s How We Roll is
a lovely song as a standalone, and sets up the final track quite well. It’s a
relationship that we hopefully all recognise, and if we don’t have it we aspire
to it. Two people who simply deal with
whatever comes up, together. Not quite as catchy as the preceding songs with more banjo in this one.
I'm ready to roll to the
next song!
Living Alone
Although Malcolm’s music has
a traditional feel, this is song is on an absolutely contemporary theme. Talking about the internet and its role in seeking
love. This really resonates, perhaps
with those of a certain age, lives straddling the old days and the new. Most people don’t want to be lonely and are looking
for that special someone.
A quite cynical quote, which
I hope isn’t true: “the internet has replaced the bar at the weekend”
Heed the warning, don’t
leave it too long, we all get too used to living alone
With this new EP Malcolm has
very much travelled the Americana road, using banjo, pedal steel and dobro to
accompany the songs, plus the drums punctuating the emotions and the guitar leading
all of the instrumentation. The addition
of Clare Portman’s vocals act as a perfect counterpoint to Malcolm’s own voice
Hearts and Horizons, the latest EP from Malcolm MacWatt is available to download and stream on all major digital platforms
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