The term Canadiana doesn’t appear to have yet filtered into
the lexicon of music genres like its southern neighbourly counterpart but if it
did then Dennis Ellsworth would be amongst its first inductees. The Prince
Edward Island native surfaced in the UK last year with the excellent DUSK DREAMS
and played a storming set at the Maverick Festival which was acknowledged by
this site as being one of the weekend’s highlights. Dennis is set to build on
the appreciation he received with the release of this follow up album which is a
more introspective piece of work than its predecessor. Furthermore HAZY
SUNSHINE is a stirring selection of sophisticated songs drawing its influence from
a multitude of sources and extolling a variety of moods.
Dennis name checks one of his influences in the album’s most
striking song title ‘Harry Nilsson’s
Heart’ but a key similar vocal style to Elvis Costello is a more pertinent
feature to the record in its early stages. This opening segment possesses all
the hallmarks of mature country rock as Dennis sandwiches the album’s stand out
track ‘Coke Machine Glow’ between the
jaunty violin laced opener ‘Things I Want’
and a more standard soft rocker ‘Let It All
Out’. This stand out track is one of two co-writes to supplement the
solitary song writing of Ellsworth and the swirling guitar piece towards the
end ignites this super little number.
The aforementioned violin and its viola relative play a significant
part on the album’s instrumentation especially on the quieter numbers where an
air of sensitivity is added to the sound. ‘If
I Find the Truth’ shows Dennis as the master of the single guitar and solo
voice until he lets the more classical string arrangements take control. He
adopts a more philosophical mood to his writing on the rather dark ‘Rudderless Day’ which is followed by the
equally mellow ‘Hazy Sunshine’, a
moment when your senses are set free to roam. As the album meanders its way to
the exit door this tender style returns with ‘Silver Tears’ and more violin added to the closer ‘Can’t Turn To You’.
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It is within this final number where Dennis peels back some
of the pretence to his song writing with the killer line ‘So I will glue my
heart to you’. Elsewhere the writing can be a complex collection of candid and
cryptic compositions yet nonetheless appealing and implanting a desire to
explore the wares of his musical craft. As was in evidence at last year’s
Maverick set, Dennis is probably at his peak during the faster tempo numbers
where he draws on his influences from such diverse sources as folk, indie,
country and punk rock. ‘Paradise’
probably has a greater folk rock tinge to its structure while ‘Happiness’ could quite easily re-appear
on a more explicit country release. The remaining track to be mentioned is ‘Everything’s Fine’ where a lovely
keyboard intro spices up a classic singer-songwriter offering to rival some of
his influences referred to in the press release.