Sometimes you have to have the courage of your convictions, do things your own way, listen to no one but that voice in your head and create something just for yourself. Rarely does that roll of the dice pay off as well as on ‘Myths, Legends & Lies’ an album sweeping in scope and, it has to be said, not exactly what you might expect from the man with the golden voice best known for his work with Tyketto.
Some of the songs here, as Danny told me, “have been hanging around for years” and all have great meaning: others are newer, fresher, leaner, and all are diverse. I like to think of this album as opening the door to a tavern full of fellow travelers, stopping for a drink and immersing yourself in the stories. Stories from all over the world, from all walks of life. That to me is the heart and soul of ‘Myths, Legends & Lies.’
‘The Shadow Of King John’ opens the door on that fictional tavern, it’s a song that bursts in on you, and one that is Irish through and through, like Dropkick Murphy’s or Flogging Molly and as an opening track it takes you quite by surprise and immediately lets you know that ‘Myths Legends & Lies’ is going to be a rather interesting proposition. But it’s not a Folk album, not a collection of Gallic-flavored tunes, this is just where the stories start with a tale of the Irish Tiger and the town that Danny lived in when he moved from the US. It also happens to be a great song.
‘Man Or Machine’ the tale that follows is a brooding acoustic powerhouse of a song that is Folky in parts but with a modern sheen not unlike the Folk Pop we hear these days, it’s a wonderful composition, steeped in melody and it sets the room alight as the hand-claps drive it on before the song Danny has had with him since he was 18 kicks in.
‘The Missouri Kid’ is the first what I’d probably call ‘traditional’ Danny Vaughn song and it paints the story of the man who used to hang around the streets outside the rehearsal space where Danny played with his early band. It’s a tale of the New York Streets, of regret, of the king of card sharps and his fall by way of the bottle. After multiple plays it also stands up as one of our favourites here, slow and sweet, set alight by Vaughn’s story-telling. A small vignette full of warmth and humanity.
‘The Good Life’ is a left turn, jazzy, shot through with a frantic violin and a gypsy rhythm and New Orleans beat, it comes across as a stew of all of the above with a swing that won’t stop. ‘The Last Ride Of The Sunset Men’ is just as rich, but this time steered towards the comfort of Country that just builds and grows as it rolls and picks up wonderful lines of detail before its broken by a spoken word piece with a mythical countenance that feels ripped from the pages of Lord of the Rings, a book Danny’s parents read to him as a child.
And that is part of the wonder here, in these songs which you can read as a whole or as they stand alone. There’s a wonderful feeling that as life swirls all around us all, Danny has reached into the air to capture songs like these as they swirl around like leaves of paper, kept them safe and is now sharing those tales with us all.
‘Black Crow’ feels more of a poem set to a dark folky blues; and ‘Monkeys With Money And Guns’ comes across like Seger met Thunder; whilst the acoustic ‘Point The Way’ tells the incredible tale of a Russian Prince in a far way land offered the secret to the meaning of life. Like all the best stories and legends it picks up detail in its retelling and when you hear the story the truth of the matter seems immaterial compared to the wonder of the premise. It also opens with my favourite line on the album “I stumbled in out of the rain in a coffee house in Kazakhstan…” and the tale unwinds from there, it’s majestic.
‘Deep Water’ has a nice earthy feel, part Blues, part Folk, with a nice dark Jazzy swing as the protagonist evades escapes on his life.It couldn’t be more different to ‘Kelly’s Gone’ a lush ballad that takes that eternal inspiration ‘love and loss’ as its subject matter. The me these two songs are the tale of the album, the dark and the light, the unexpected and the comfortable. Both are wonderful and both paint such vivid pictures.
‘Something I picked Up Along The Way’ is the song that Danny and I talked about at length the other day (interview coming soon) it’s another song that if it had been described to me beforehand, I would have thought that maybe it wasn’t one for me. It’s rooted again in Jazz and dark hazy swing, it sounds like the air is thick with summer sweat, and when you hear Danny take hold of it you realise that he was made to make music like this: music like Tom Waits and Nick Cave would make. It’s a song that perfectly sums up when Danny said “It’s an album I’ve been talking about making for over fourteen years, a bunch of songs I call my orphans: they’re a group of numbers, collected over decades, that I never found a proper home for.”
‘Time Out Of Mind’ is another song you feel Vaughn could base an album around, a cool song of content and relationships and with all the swagger of ‘Southern Harmony-era’ Black Crowes. It’s a wonderfully light eye-opening moment where you feel the world looks just that little better after you hear it.
It comes just before what might be the most important moment on the album. ‘Seven Bells’ is that story, that legend, a song of the passing of time, being parted from those we love and of returning home. It’s a huge song and a long song stretching to seven minutes. It’s the soul of the album and feels timeless.
It’s not the final word however, that honour goes to ‘What You Left Behind’ a light uplifting acoustic-picked number that revels in its simplicity, stripped back to a Folk-like beauty that explores that question we all have – our own mortality. It’s a beautiful song to all those we have lost, and a reassurance that their spirit lives on in us before we eventually come to the end of our road. You will weep when that final note falls.
“This is the music I make when left to my own devices. When there is no schedule to satisfy and no target audience to audition for.” Danny said of this album, and of course 11 years after his last solo release its a long time coming. You really do feel that that these songs or ‘stories’ have been carefully collected over the years, loving cared for, revisited, cherished and held dear, refined and kept safe, just for this moment. Danny Vaughn might be best known for being one of the best voices in Rock, but here he harnesses that emotion and power for another purpose.
There’s a determination in this collection that you feel Vaughn knows in his heart is bigger than anything he’s attempted before, and the fact that he’s been assisted and guided by such a wonderful bunch of players and accomplices I’m sure made the path just a little smoother. But not all stories run smoothly, or have happy endings, and for any artist there is always the anticipation of what the fans will feel and take from it, and if the wider public will get to hear it at all, such is the snobbery of the mainstream music press towards Rock musicians even to this day.
To these ears this is an album I never thought I’d get to hear, a wonderful mix of all the influences Danny has held dear all these years – artists like John Hiatt, Don Henley, Bruce Hornsby, Tom Waits, Dr. John, Bernie Taupin, The Beatles, Steve Miller, Simon and Garfunkel and so many others that have seeped in over time and through those invisible airwaves. But it’s not about them at all they just paved the way, this is an album about Danny Vaughn and his journey, about tales some tall, some true but all tales which make us who we are. This Mr. Vaughn is your masterpiece and I feel privileged to have heard it.
Album Tracks:
1. The Shadow Of King John
2. Man Or Machine
3. The Missouri Kid
4. The Good Life
5. The Last Ride Of The Sunset Men
6. Black Crow
7. Monkeys With Money And Guns
8. Point The Way
9. Deep Water
10. Kelly’s Gone
11. Something I picked Up Along The Way
12. Time Out Of Mind
13. Seven Bells
14. What You Left Behind
Recorded, engineered and mixed by Tim Hamill at Sonic One Studios, Llangennech, Wales.
Mastered by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios.
The musicians:
Danny Vaughn: Lead & Backing Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Mandolin, Harmonica, Banjo, Keyboards
Chris Childs: Bass Guitar
Rhys Morgan: Drums
Nigel Hopkins: Piano, Hammond, Wurlitzer, Accordion, Synths and Orchestration
Elizabeth Pendergrast: Violon
Cheryl Kane: Backing Vocals
Emma Bryden: Cello
Andrew Griffiths: All Horns
Chris Buck: Guitar solos on “The Good Life” & “Monkeys With Money And Guns”
UK Live Dates
May 30: Yardbirds in Grimsby, UK
July 11: Bannermans in Edinburgh, UK
July 12: Waterloo Music Bar in Blackpool, UK
July 13: Sanders Yard Bistro in Whitby, UK (Sold Out)
July 19: Queen’s Hall, Nuneaton
July 20: Tivoli, Buckley
Aug 16: The Dreadnought in Bathgate, UK
Aug 17: The Diamond Rock Bar in Ballymena, N. Ireland
Aug 22: The Black Heart, London
Aug 23: The Cluny, Newcastle
Aug 29: Eleven, Stoke On Trent
Aug 30: The Asylum, Birmingham
UK Live Dates
May 30: Yardbirds in Grimsby, UK
July 11: Bannermans in Edinburgh, UK
July 12: Waterloo Music Bar in Blackpool, UK
July 13: Sanders Yard Bistro in Whitby, UK (Sold Out)
July 19: Queen’s Hall, Nuneaton
July 20: Tivoli, Buckley
Aug 16: The Dreadnought in Bathgate, UK
Aug 17: The Diamond Rock Bar in Ballymena, N. Ireland
Aug 22: The Black Heart, London
Aug 23: The Cluny, Newcastle
Aug 29: Eleven, Stoke On Trent
Aug 30: The Asylum, Birmingham
Website: http://www.dannyvaughn.com/site/
