Once seen Otis is rarely forgotten, whether it’s his
trademark beard, gruff vocals or sheer ability to captivate a room full of
demanding ears. He can range from both cynical about the industry to appreciative about his fans but always ready
to share his perceptive skills via his lyrical competence and the standard folk
style medium of acoustic guitar. On record, and especially this latest release,
there is more scope for development and there is a fair amount of country
appeal on the new album with the increasing utilisation of fiddle and pedal
steel guitar. All this adds spice to the core ingredient of Otis which is the
construction of a song that will absorb into your head, heart and soul.
While resorting to the ever popular crowd funding model to
finance the record, Otis found that there were many faithful believers out
there. There may have been a wait for this release, Otis previewed a number of
songs on his tour last year, but this 10-song 38-minute collection is ready to
be unleashed on a UK audience through another upcoming tour and a wider
availability through physical and digital formats. A tie up with Thirty Tigers
music management will enhance its promotion as even a record of this quality
needs a nudge in the right direction.
The record’s title is lifted from a quote Otis noted down
when his father referred to the ailments of an arduous and torturous working
life. This talent for spotting the artistic potential from everyday events has
been the source of Otis’s craft since the days when he too had to toil for a living.
‘No Rust on My Spade’ is one of the
record’s standout tracks and re-tells the exploits from his tree planting days.
The personal stories roll on especially in ‘Ghosts of our Fathers’ where a neighbour’s loss in Vietnam is the subject. While
opening track ‘Cozmina’ has its
origins in picking up a hitch hiker in Romania.
This opening number is an interesting development in Otis’s
work as it begins with a minute and half fiddle solo with a significant pause
before the vocals kick in. Along with the usual guitar accompaniment there
appears to be a wider use of pedal steel especially in the tracks towards the
end such as ‘Kokomo Bar’ and ‘With a Gun in My Hand’. The traditional
tones of banjo can be detected in ‘Nancy
Barnett’ while one of the more upbeat numbers ‘It was a Train’ rumbles along in the vein of its subject.
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| Photo by Todd Fox |
To take a break from extolling the virtues of Otis’s song
writing, the excellent ‘Wrong Side of Gallatin’
comes from the pen of his long term partner Amy Lashley but possibly the
record’s premier track is ‘The Darker
Side of Me’. This riveting number has a Merle Haggard feel to it and it had
to be checked it wasn’t a long lost cover. Sources confirmed the origin to be a
camp fire story which inspired Otis to commit to song and once again confirming
that listening and interpretive skills are core to great folk song writers.
