SPENCER KILPATRICK – EP REVIEW

Spencer Kilpatrick – Rhonda EP 
Spencer Kilpatrick - Rhonda EP


Release Date: Out Now

Regular readers of this little blog will know that US band Failure Machine have found a special place in my heart and my T-Shirt drawer. Apart from being some of the nicest guys I’ve never met, they are also hugely adept and rocking out with soul which is a rare thing these days. So, being given the opportunity to get an early listen of the new solo material of FM main man Spencer Kilpatrick was too good to pass up. These five tunes are bundled together under the title ‘Rhonda’ and open up with ‘San Jose’, a bluesy, rattling good tune played out on acoustic guitar with some drunken horns in the background as Kilpatrick gives a Big Lebowski style chat up line to an old flame. On ‘Two Long Nights’ the blues are back with a more midnight hour vibe as the whisky smell and smoke seeps through every note and that low horn blows in the corner to give this a New Orleans funereal vibe.

The four count in to ‘Running Back’ is almost reticent as Kilpatrick’s heartbreak is there for everyone to hear with nothing but the rich, rasping, Joe Cocker-esque voice with a deep south twang played out with a simple guitar strum and tambourine tap. ‘Precious, Precious’ is the missing track from the Blues Brothers soundtrack as the rich horns beef out some bottleneck guitar and the woozy stagger home from a late night bar suddenly has a soundtrack. Final track ‘Plastic Jesus’ is a Ray LaMontagne strum played out sat on the ledge of a broken window looking out at lazy trees swaying in time to the chords that could be a modern blues classic given time. The scariest and most impressive thing about this humble EP is that these are songs Kilpatrick wrote in another lifetime before Failure Machine even existed. That means there is more, so much more, still to come and I can’t wait for it.

More information: https://www.facebook.com/failuremachine/?fref=ts

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