Frankie Lee: American Dreamer (Loose Music)
On this debut album, rough-at-the-edges Mississippi-born troubadour Frankie Lee reveals a debt to both Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, especially in a vocal delivery which sits somewhere between the laconic (Bob) and the plaintive (Bruce). Musically, though, it's the latter who provides the more obvious template, with perhaps a little of Kurt Vile's grungy Americana thrown in.
The power of Lee's own life story is undeniable. His father died in a motorbike accident when he was 12, he fell into music aged 14, drifted across the Mid-West, was diagnosed with narcolepsy and medicated accordingly, did other drugs too, cleaned up, worked as a house-builder and met Merle Haggard in Nashville. But those experiences flavour his lyrics in only the most tangential way, if at all. Horses, Queen Of Carolina and East Side Blues find him as his wistful, downbeat best but the rolling Black Dog and the country rock-flavoured Buffalo suggests there's also a powerful live performer in there too. We'll find out for sure when he plays Glasgow's ABC on December 6.
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