And it came to pass that a quintet of Dundonians looked over the Tay to Fife and thought they would like a fondly regarded musicians' collective on their side of the Fence.
So a trio of songwriters – Stevie Anderson, Gavin McGinty and Dave Webster – hooked up with a rhythm section (Billy Fisher and Robbie Ward) and made a nouveau folk disc (with a nod towards Weimar cabaret on McGinty's Agony, Agony) that democratically features four songs from each pen, and was recorded in rural Perthshire and then extremely well mixed and produced by Mike Brown in the city centre.
As has been observed elsewhere, the Dundee music scene has been oddly insular over the years, but this supergroup is being touted as a band (sorry, "collective") that will win hearts and minds over the summer festivals. And so it may prove, because there are some catchy tunes among the 12, and all three frontmen have interesting voices. What also runs through the disc is a misogynistic lyrical strain, most pronounced on McGinty's Michael's Temptress, but also displayed by his cohorts. Donna, Jessica, and Mona, who all have songs named for them, deserve the collective right of reply.
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