The Scottish folk-roots duo Doghouse Roses, comprising guitarist Paul Tasker and singer Iona Macdonald, have been around the scene for close on five years now, having so far released two plainly self-styled "folk-blues" EPs and one well-received full-length CD (2008's How've You Been All This Time?).
On the latter-mentioned, they were augmented by the talents of six guest musicians, but sparingly. And similarly, for their second full-lengther, where in spite of utilising four extra musicians (these including album producer Alan Scobie, who'd also played on the first album), textures remain significantly pared down, with a welcome sense of cool understatement and "less is more" to the proceedings. Once again the emphasis is firmly on own-compositions, with all tracks credited jointly to Paul and Iona, and although their romantic "tales of redemption, desperation and hell-raising" tend to speak for themselves it would have been nice to have at least a bare minimum of background information (if not the lyrics) somewhere in the foldout package.
Iona's singing is forthright yet duskily plaintive, and stylistically, while not at all derivative, veers between her admitted influences; there's some Fotheringay-era Sandy Denny (the gently rolling Evermore), with shades of a deeper Jacqui McShee perhaps (Survival) and Gillian Welch (especially on Blue Moon On The Mountain, which betrays an even more pronounced parallel in the Rawlings-like picking that accompanies her). Paul's guitar work is refreshingly minimal in its poetic expression, and, while evidently inspired by Bert Jansch, has an organic intensity that well complements the shadings and dynamics of Iona's vocal expressiveness.
This is one of those significantly accomplished records about which it's difficult to say a lot that's meaningful without giving too much away – and thus speaks best to the listener when saddled with a bare minimum of critical reference or depiction (or interference!).
If I tried to describe the music as Americana-tinged folk with acoustic-contemporary overtones, I'd be missing some aspect out – for Doghouse Roses seem to encompass most of those angles at some juncture. And yet by the end of the twelve-track sequence, there's also a sense of elusiveness, of mildly unfinished business: it's rather as if Paul and Iona have vanished mid-flight yet they had plenty more to say.
Even so, this is definitely a CD well worth tracking down – and savouring at leisure, for although much of its contents has an instant impact it may still not reveal all its skilled subtleties too immediately.
www.doghouseroses.org
David Kidman September 2010
