WYCKHAM PORTEOUS: IN THIS WORLD (Ragged Pup)
***

"There's a black crow on a steeple top
and he waits for me like he wants to talk"

The opening verse from the fourth disc by this Vancouver Island-born Canadian combined with the cover photo of a decomposing Yak in Tibet portend doom and gloom. However first song 'In this world' sets off at a rattling pace and immediately the lyrics combine emotion and politics in equal measure. New producer Moris Tepper, veteran of sessions with the cream of the L.A. Blues/weird crew Waits/Beck/Beefheart ,and engineer Joe Chiccarelli, who has worked with Steve Wynn and Cracker amongst others, add a distinctly new flavour to the dish of roots/americana served on previous CD - 'Looking for ground'. That recording charted a longstanding ambition to record 'down south' which Porteous romances in an almost Band manner. The disc was a coherant slab of singer/songwriter fare in the Robert Earl Keen / Joe Ely mould which gained prestigious awards and seemed to have nailed the artist stylistically forever. The presence of noteworthy Austin performer Jimmy LaFave and back up from Abra Moore and Christine Levine seemed to have fulfilled his ambitions and a steady stream of albums from down south were expected.

However this recording sees him on a new label and having the roots rocker image given a severe trial by the production team. Tepper challenged him to leave the 'comfort zone' of his previous work behind and try singing in a higher key and also brought in some eclectic instrumentation. The result sounds different to his previous folkier outings - a self/titled debut and the exceptional 17-song 'Could it be my road' which served to raise his profile in his native British Columbia. Porteous has not confined himself solely to songwriting either. His initial fame rested on a one-man play 'Joe's Café' and other radio plays which gained exposure in Canada and he plans to publish a book of stories, poems and plays under the title '' I understand rain'. Tepper's involvement makes more sense when you place him firmly in the literate songwriting school along with the likes of Waits and Alvin etc.
First track 'In this world' doesn't prepare for the dislocation that follows as it powers along on a standard riff with Dylanesque organ behind. Lyrics spin by as Porteous powers up to the chorus. We are on solid ground. Then 'Collar to the wind' shows Tepper's hand for the first time as his voice is heightenedand a lilting acoustic/drum backing with pump organ that wouldn't sound amiss behind Waits rattles along. This works well until Wyckham fights back with a crashing chorus straight out of the old method-schoolo of songwriting. Next track 'Radio London' is more worrying still with its homage to The Clash that is more reminiscent of the Psychedelic Furs. An interesting lyric about a train once owned by Eric Honneker and now a radio station in Holland is thrown away. 'Shine On' and 'Call Me' whilst both being meditations on loss and love both rely on the chorus despite some valiant acoustic buzzing and drum bashing from behind.The latter is saved by a 'Wreck on the Highway' like melody on harmonium and a voice (down register) that sounds uncannily similar to Bob Neuwirth's. There's an unsettling melancholy at the heart of this record  as if the now forty-something  Porteous was looking both ways on his career. Indeed 'Collar to the Wind' came out of a failed set of autobiographical songs and is littered with portents of death. Tepper has probably pushed the sonic experimentation somewhat to heighten the atmosphere but occasionally as on next track 'Four Winds' it overburdens the song and pushes it too close to Gabriel/Cockburn territory.

As the mix gets stronger and stronger it seems apt that a bit of old-fashioned storytelling and musical simplicity cuts through the sonic fog. 'Jimmy LaFave goes to Hibbing, Minnesota' deserves some sort of best title award! It recounts the true tale of the singers appropriation of a window from Bob's old house in clear cut style. Like good referees you don't notice the production team. This track watersheds the CD though and it gets better from here on in. 'Julie Julie' comes across like acoustic cajun. 'Razor Thin' - an account of his meeting with his wife - drops a brilliant chorus line on top of buzzing ZZ top riffs. Then a glorious acoustic highlight 'Jimmy O'Neill' shows the depth of the man's voice when unadorned - harking back to those long nights travelling across the Praire to solo gigs. The obvious Dylan inflections are disregarded in the sheer power of the song inspired by an old photo in a shop. The acoustic finger-picking continues with 'If I could tell fortunes' which has a touch of Mississippi John Hurt about it before being reprised as a full-on Pogues/Shoulders-like hoe-down. The disc ends on 'Bald northern track' with more Tepper -inspired rattle and hum- but again without really clearing the clouds of roots rockdom. It is a shame that Porteous didn't make a truly experimental work rather than making these repeated compromises but the disc's saving graces for me are the closing tracks especially 'Jimmy O'Neill'. I'd love to hear a solo acoustic live disc. Meanwhile as he says on 'Jimmy Le Fave..'
"A song is just a song and that is all"
It's just that some songs are better than others and this artist has a literary strength which ranks him alongside the best of the Canadian Praire Poets who like Wyckham are equally neglected on this side of the Atlantic. File under literature that sings.


This review first appeared in Hearsay Magazine