You know on Amazon where they have the “Perfect Partner – Buy this with” suggestion? Tom Ovans latest offering should be paired up with a bottle of Jack (and no glass). Only after downing that and a liberal helping of loose road chippings might you be set to growl along with this veteran ramblin’ man. His dry throated rasp bisects Dylan and Tom Waits and sustains this album of itself. The Dylan comparison is obvious and frequent – but his voice is much stronger and rewarding of attention (certainly since the Dylan of the mid 70′s), and also has the occasional falsetto. Question is, would a member of the Dylan congregation welcome him in or consider him derivative? Ovans sings of low-life and the shadowy also-rans in the race for the American dream and is no imposter: having subsisted as a drifter for most of his 54 years. He only released his first album 16 years ago and this is his eleventh – following the highly regarded “Honest Abe And The Assassins”. He’s a determinedly independent outsider who’s now part of the Austin music scene after migrating across America from coast to coast; east, west and south. He may have had a ragged past, but there’s also a touch of the arty Daniel Lanois about his roots music too, and though not so evident here, he’s thoughtfully left-wing.

“Party Girl” kicks off at a dirty swagger with buzzing rhythm guitar, but soon the blues set in properly with the wailing harmonica and sparse ominous rumblings of “Whiskey Jar”, and the slow build and lovelorn desperation of “Sugar Mama”. The whole album sounds great – crisp but rugged – voice, guitars, harmonica all have bite and emerge as if sand-blasted raw by an unrelenting desert wind. The bulk of the album was recorded live onto analogue tape in a local studio – and it shows. If anything, it is some of the ‘full band’ efforts (“I’ll Be Seeing You”, “Ain’t No River”, “Somebody Told Me”) that have lesser appeal and drift toward generic AOR-style R’n’B, though never descending to insipid. Desolation seems to suit Ovans much better. “Both Sides Of The Night” was written over 30 years ago, and somehow has echoes of “If You See Her Say Hello”, but is fiercer without the softening lilt. The grizzly country blues of “Rosalie” is a nice change of pace – and it’s the sort of simple song that can only work when done with real feeling and sense of place. And any album that ends with some mean harmonica (“West Texas Blues”) gets my vote.

This year has seen Seasick Steve carve out quite a niche on the festival circuit with a colourful life story, quirky style and charismatic delivery covering for some barely average songs. Ovans should be at least as successful – but then he has rarely toured in the past, even in the US. It’s our loss. Great voice – smokin’ band. Hotter than a snake’s arse in a wheel rut. And that’s not just the whiskey talking.
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Links
Tom Ovans [official site]