London based Mark Harrison releases his seventh album of original blues roots style music; wonderful melodious tunes and fascinating lyrics.

Release Date:  30th August 2024

Label: Highway Records

Format:   CD / streaming

Mark Harrison’s music is unique not only in sound and vocal  but also in subject content for his songs.  Sat in the pub , cafe or  around the dining table we might talk about everyday issues and news topics,  but put on some music we’d listen to songs about other typical themes, love lost won etc. On Mark’s new album Fools And Clowns he writes about our chatty subjects so they immediately resonate with us at this present time.

He plays a resonator with a real expertise; one originally used by Eric Bibb so the story goes. There is a mastery to playing the resonator guitar properly. Perhaps like a banjo it has to be played really well to  be a good listen. Mark Harrison surely achieves  this as all the guitar work is a pure joy. His band enhances his guitar playing too, nothing fancy but great solid playing from all the band.

It’s his bluesy laid back tones that also run through this delightful album, The Rocket being an instrumental example of this.  Despite the current  issues he writes about there is very much a feelgood atmosphere to the music. But with songs like House Rent Party,  The Wild West and The Onliest One there is a upbeat foot-tapping feel too. 

Mark Harrison has an affinity to blues roots  more than anything. Title track  Small Deals and title track Them and Us are just a couple of  examples of this . To illustrate the kind of themes he chooses to write about. He describes Them And Us by saying:”The modern workplace can be very difficult for the people who do real jobs. They are often at the mercy of the highly paid battalions of managers who make their jobs way harder. This song is from the point of view of those people suffering at the hands of these people, and trying to do the best they can despite them.”

He likes to pay his respect to blues artists too with Fancy Hotel a mini story of Willie McTell. Ricky may leave you guessing but I’m guessing at Ricky Nelson, who wanted to relinquish his rock n roll image and show the world he was more than just hit maker – or is it just about a jobsworth singer seen as a loser but wholived for the love of playing music he wanted to play?

A search through Mark’s back catalogue of six albums is a must,  as is a trip to Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre the closest venue to us on his Spring tour next year.

Here’s Them And Us:

Mark Harrison Band online: Website / Facebook / X-Twitter / Instagram

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