The more I hear of Keith Urban and Kasey Chambers, the more it's apparent that they have nothing to do with what anyone should consider to be country music. They arei hospital strength disinfectant-treated confections, aberrations so far removed from the original form so as to be irrelevant. Their records are turds polished within an inch of their sorry lives for moronic masses wearing shit-eating grins. A snob's view? People like Dave Favours come along and you know your opinion counts.
I don't pretend to come from a country kinda place. Keef and Neil probably brought me there and sometimes I dwell reluctantly. Dave Favours (aka Sydney guitarist-vocalist Dave Forrester) used to be in The Forresters, a band whose stock-in-trade was more in the line of soulful pop. He also plays in The Delivery (nee Mo And The Delivery.) Dave's surrounded himself with a skilful crew, one or two like The Delivery double bassist Brother P and drummer, Jeff Cripps, in the veteran class, and slipped into the woodwork seamlessly. He seems right at home.
"One Hand On The Wheel" is and EP of four solid Favours originals, replete with Favours' nicely weathered vocal, acoustic guitars, mandolin and harmonica, and a solitary cover. Of the originals, "Why Can't I Remember Your Name?" is a bitter-sweet song about the drink, "One Hand On The Wheel" a similar couched leaving-you-by-car song. You might not initially recognise The Clash's "Bankrobber" at first - the dub's been stripped out with pedal steel transplanted - but it works a treat.
A diversion for some for me, "One Hand On The Wheel" will become an obsession for others. If you like to wander the wilds of Sydney's inner-west picking gunfights over caffe latte (or kick tumbleweeds around East St Kilda for that matter), this will be the soundtrack for you.
2/3
