One of my favourite Northern Irish bands of the last few years has been Trucker Diablo, and this year vocalist Tom Harte has put out his first solo EP. It still of course sports his distinctive vocal, but as you’ll find covers rather different ground to the Truckers…
Trucker Diablo have always had a real talent for slower numbers and here you get the feeling it’s that, and a desire to strip away the crunching guitars and get to the essence of the song itself that was the driving factor for the sparse acoustic treatment. At just four short songs ‘Life, Love and Everything in Between’ is a great introduction, but of course its bound to leave you wanting to hear more.
Of the four tracks here it’s the wonderful ‘All Night Long’ that provides the most instantly gratifying connection. The song is sheer class, and its that theme of delivering really heart felt somewhat melancholy songs inspired by real life stories that is the solid ground for this selection of “acoustic and voice” tunes.
Second single ‘Prison Walls’ adds a little more aggression and yearning but still keeps to that countrified bluesy feel and drops in a hugely satisfying chorus. And the other two tunes here are of course of equal quality and stature. ‘Last Train Tonight’ gets the feet tapping as it takes you into the heart of a beautifully pained scene of ‘one last night together’. God that’s a great song. ‘What About Us’ rounds out the four with a strummed guitar that takes us into rather satisfying Tom Petty meets Tracey Chapman territory, its the most uplifting song here and a great way to round out a great selection.
This is a great EP and every song here is golden. More please…
