Fee Brown & The Highwater- The Devil Dressed Me

Thu 12th Mar, 2009 in Music Reviews

Fee Brown is no stranger to the multi-faceted music culture of the world. A restless spirit has taken her around the globe to exotic locations with chance meetings with world-weary music heroes (such as Nashville’s Steve Forbert) while ripening her experience with travellers and locals from the Sahara to Ensenada. The ever-pervading trials and rewards of life on the road, however, have sculptured her songs and her eclectic sound. In fact, she may be one of the hardest working acts around today, and her debut album (an album supported by the Victoria Rocks program) The Devil Dressed Me is a watermark of such integrity; a layered album of rich tapestry and alt country heart.

Brown’s husky voice intimately delivers stories of wandering travellers and vagabonds surrounded by a backdrop of warm flooding organ, strings, banjo, piano and valve amps. Tremolo and acoustic guitars anchor these rootsy songs, which sit perfectly within the context of the songs. The opening track and radio single, 24 Hours (Bobby’s Waltz), does in fact live up to its name. It opens with a single waltz strummed acoustic and quickly explodes into a chorus of vocal harmonies with a majestic sounding backing band The Highwater (lead guitarist Damian Hooper, double bass player Chris Pain and percussionist Tim Scanlan ) complete with accompanying mariachi trumpets to tie the tune together in true Americana fashion. And Fee assures us that Bobby is never coming home. It’s apparent that the album has been given ample care. It is extremely well produced and engineered by Myles Mumford (Lamplight, Kate Vigo, Way Out West), with Myles also providing Trombone and backing vocals on the track 24 Hours.

It’s not that often a singer/songwriter can capture the imagery and the geography of the material they’re writing, quite possibly, because they are merely imagining it from the comfort of their living room. Yet there is a sense of real characters on a journey within these 10 tracks. In Meantime Lover, Fee and the band sound like they’ve been living in Bob Dylan’s trailer during his – œ70s era, yet allowing the songs gravity to shift into a rousing chorus. Dublin Song paints a gray canvas, miserable Irish weather and hardship.

An autobiographical tale of busking and playing bars in Dublin as Brown wails, “Damn this depression what is the lesson and what good is taste without desire?”, while the song highlights some of Fee’s delicate finger-picking. Fitzroy County is almost a two-step country swing that could be straight from a Nashville jukebox, the difference being Fee follows in the tradition of The Waifs and sings in her homegrown Australian accent, while remaining subtle in the process. Why Does My Love Walk Away provides a seductive warning and floats upon organ and wonderful dynamics and musical precision from Highwater.

The title track The Devil Dressed Me is a personal favourite and opens with a Carla Bozulich like snarl (brooding and contemplative), yet quickly marches into a bar room romp and makes very tasteful use of cellist Judith Hamann, and as the band pick up the swing you can almost smell the smoke and whiskey; makes you want to dance around your living room swigging a bottle of rum while joining in on the “whoa whoa whoas”.

Closer sits well as a ballad, but doesn’t quite hit the mark with the same consistency as the rest, however does provide a lift from the dramatics. That said, there is not a bad song on the album, but certainly stronger contenders than others. This is the dynamics of most albums, and quite often allowing for songs to grow on the listener. Choosing to close the album with the rumbling Holding Me Down is a bold move, as the song jumps out with howling harmonica and chugging electric guitar. It’s in fact rock enough to provide the theme to a bar fight, and that’s what it seems to be as Brown promises herself liberation from an obviously exhausted relationship. One wonders if the song When The Clouds, with its ethereal harmonies, grand strings and sweeping backdrop would have provided a better departure.

There are subtle nods to Gilliam Welch, Kasey Chambers and The Waifs, but as an artist Fee Brown stands alone with a stunning debut album that is charming, seductive, sincere and full of real life stories.

The Devil Dressed Me will be officially launched at the Northcote Social Club on 29 March.