David Hope: Scarecrow

Though he hails from Co. Clare, this well-travelled troubadour’s musical gaze is fixed firmly across the Atlantic, his influences almost entirely drawn from American roots styles. With a rough-hewn voice somewhere between that of Tom Waits and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy (with a touch of Springsteen), Hope combines elements of folk, country, blues and soul on his second album, produced by Declan Sinnott. His songs are strong and have a lived-in, authentic, almost sepia-toned feel: the best, including jaunty opener ‘Hell or High Water’, the country rock ‘Fall and Rise’ and the blues-tinged ‘These Days’ are on a par with anything out of the American heartland.

The most Irish sounding track here, ‘Daybreak Someplace’, is a highlight and comes across like something Mick Hanly or Paul Brady might have written. Elsewhere, ‘See The Ghost’ is a soft country shuffle, ‘Cloak and Daggers’ is reminiscent of JJ Cale, and the title track is a gothic backwoods ballad. He explores early Dylan style storytelling folk on ‘Let Her Go’ while the alt. country closer ‘Someone Else’s Mind’ could sit comfortably on a Ryan Adams album. Worth hearing...