Massy Ferguson – ‘Great Divides’ (North & Left)

By DJ Monk

Massy Ferguson have been kicking around the Americana scene for about a dozen years, ever since frontman Ethan Anderson relocated from the rural farmlands of the Pacific North-West to the big smoke that is Seattle. This is the band’s fifth album, and once again is an impression portrayal, and reflection, of the beer drinking, blue-collar working-class people whose stories it tells, with its mix of country rock, gospel, blues and garage rock.

The one thing that immediately strikes you about ‘Great Divides’ – the title of which reflects on how the life he leads today is so much different than the one he had when he first started out down the rock ‘n’ roll highway – is both the incisiveness and deftness of Anderson’s songwriting: the former displayed in his lyrics, the latter in how the music is moulded to evoke and accentuate those words.

As I mentioned, ‘Great Divides’ is an often-reflective album, drawing on its creator’s personal experiences. Opener, ‘Can’t Remember’, for example, tells the tale of a 21 year-old Seattle newcomer, drunkenly talking to the cocktail waitress who’d later become his wife; later, he brings everything full-circle with ‘Wolf Moon’, a song that finds Anderson – no longer an out-of-place teenager, but now an adult with a wife, two children – dispensing road-worn advice to his sons. However, in between it is also a celebration of the joys that these experiences have brought to the singer, as demonstrated on the rambunctious ‘Rerun’, which quite easily sits alongside anything produced by the likes of Jason And The Scorchers or any of Dan Baird’s various projects.

Now, so far I’ve concentrated on Anderson and his songwriting: that is not to say that is a solo album. Nothing could be further from the truth, as Massy Ferguson are very much a band, and an extremely cohesive unit at that. Adam Monda is a terrific talent, whipping out lead links as biting as some of the lyrics, interjecting beautiful slide miens into furious blues rock themes, before easing right back on the medal as the songs enter more mournful moods. Meanwhile, Fred Slater’s keyboards fully augment the overall sound, often buried in the background but occasionally springing to the fore, such as on the magnificently moody ‘Drop An Atom Bomb On Me’, which draws very much on the Petty/Young school. Not forgetting drummer Dave Goedde (as if we would), who holds down his end of things with precision and a style that often says more by what you’ve felt he’s left out: no, there’s an not an extraneous hi-hat or needless fill, just a plain honest-to-goodness, no-nonsense delivery that perfectly matches the overall feel of what is going on in front of the sticksman.

‘Great Divides’ is a hugely enjoyable album, and one which is worthy of repeated listens. There is plenty to provoke in the ten songs in the standard UK edition, and plenty to get your aural cortexes around, from the bar-room rock ‘n’ roll anthemics of the likes of ‘Can’t Remember’, ‘Saying You Were There’ and ‘They Want That Sound’ through the gospel-infused bluegrass/country stomp of ‘Maybe The Gods’, the evocative ‘Wolf Moon’ to the Springsteen-esque ‘Saying You Were There’. An essential purchase for anyone who has ever delved into the Great American Songbook, and a worthy new chapter therein. And, with ‘The Boss’ about to release a new album, he has some serious competition on his hands…

‘Great Divides’ is released today (Friday 7 June). You can get your copy HERE.
Massy Ferguson tour in July:

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