UK Indie Americana singer-songwriter Dave Burn releases his second solo album ‘Medium Dave + Friends’ this month. Londoner Burn, a founding member of ahab and UK Americana ‘supergroup’ Orphan Colours, alongside former Noah And The Whale guitarist Fred Abbott, has been working on the album whenever other projects have allowed him time since the release of its predecessor, ‘Arizona,’ in 2017.
‘Medium Dave + Friends’ (Medium Dave was a nickname given to him while working with two other Daves, dubbed Little Dave and Big Dave) twists itself around a blurry idea that the middle ground of the ordinary can actually be good, that as we age softening our behaviour or relaxing polarising, immutable views can be quite radical.
The album opens with `Down From The Mountain` a fairly fast paced offering with some lovely guitar and banjo chords and vocals with a delightful resonance about it, a number that addresses alpha male influencer types who are constantly pushing at you. I read that `Sun Sometimes` puzzles out procrastination over life’s admin, inspired by a painting that a friend left leaning against a wall for two years, waiting but most likely never to be hung. It has a pleasant almost summery introspective dreaminess about it with what may well be steel guitar along with tinkling piano and organ keys.
`Stop Panicking` is a rolling rhythmic melodic outing which muses on being a tiny part of something much bigger and taking serenity from that notion. The meditative `Always New` set out to be a love song but ended up as a reflection on the singer’s uneasy relationship with alcohol.
`Never Did Dance` is a rhythmic contemplation on a failed relationship where both partners seemed to be unable to commit to each other’s personal quirks. The melancholic `Cold Station` appears to be about facing up to a difficult physical challenge before endeavouring to address relationship issues closer to home.
`Universe` is a tender musing on feeling you`re the centre of the Cosmos when you first wake each day before avoiding real life issues by getting wasted, a kind of groundhog day scenario. A Double bass adds a jazzy feel at times to `World In My Way` which seems to be about meditating on life rather than living it.
`In Real Life` is fairly piano driven and a kind of observational rumination on simple things surveyed and pondering a much greater significance about them, a philosophical reflection possibly. There was a folky rolling ambience to `Violent Animals` with lyrics that seemed a little surreal but maybe were somehow metaphorical.
`Friend of Mine` felt like a melodic stream of consciousness where the narrator almost lacks ambition but is very amenable to making friends. The album closes with the dreamy `Like A Flower` a final thoughtful reflective musing equating their life to a flower in a vase as it withers and dies.
‘Medium Dave + Friends’ has an absorbing quality about it and reflects the thoughts and views of a self-proclaimed ordinary Joe. The tracks shared were musically quite varied and brought to mind artists such as Steve Earle, Richard Thompson, and Nick Drake.
For me ‘Medium Dave + Friends’ is a kind of amiable fanfare from a common man.
Rating 8.5/10
