DUSK (vinyl)

Description

'DUSK' is a bridge between two venerable pillars - a New York piano bar still moist from Louis Armstrong's deep voice and the Bugsy Malone vibe, shot through with the 70s/80s rock scene, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits... Then the other pillar - more structured/traditional, Dylan and Springsteen but also McCartney, Van Morrison, Alan Price... more simply the Celtic soul, both warm and cool. The shimmering tension and mature power of 'DUSK' leaves us suspended on our own emotional bridges, Paddy's writing and the refined production create a voice, and a path, between us and... ourselves. Paddy Sherlock landed in Paris in the nocturnal music world, trombone in hand and original songs on his lips. A member of the bands FFF, P18, The Swinging Lovers, Paddy commands the stage with a natural Sinatra-esque ease. A leader of the neo-swing movement, he has performed with countless legends (David Gilmour, John Lord, Ian Paice, Woody Allen band, James Brown band, Martha Reeves, Glen Hansard, Mary Black...) demonstrating over the years a great mastery of improvisation and stagecraft. But there's an additional dimension to Sherlock. Raw and dark, passionately melodic, authentic and almost intimate. Almost. Finally comes 'DUSK', the album that reveals a gentle icon of generous and emotional songwriting, the album that is Paddy in his very essence, vulnerable, and transcended by the refined and striking arrangements of his peers: Sal Bernardi (Ricky Lee Jones), Steven Forward (Ray Charles, Mc Cartney), and Jeff Hallam (Dominique A, Hindi Zahra). PRODUCED BY BRISA ROCHÉ, recorded-mixed by Jeff Hallam, 'DUSK' makes those who have met Paddy realize their luck, and causes regret in others. The shimmering tension and mature power of DUSK leave us suspended on our own emotional bridges, Paddy's writing and the refined production create a voice, and a path, between us and... ourselves. And we will listen to it, again and again, and we will be surprised, always and again." "HIGH-CLASS FOLK CROONER." --- TÉLÉRAMA ---. "ROUGH DIAMOND" --- ROLLING STONE ---. "An album that shows true character in its artistic expression..." --- ROLLING STONE ---. "INTIMATE JOURNEY FROM TOM WAITS TO VAN MORRISON, A VERY NICE CRUISE." --- ROCK & FOLK ---. "An Irishman in Paris, a swaying piano. The Irishman, a French adoptee, Paddy Sherlock. With such a surname, it's no surprise that Paddy Sherlock was born in Dublin. This ageless man set down his bags in Paris in the last century. He liked it there. Rather than sliding his trombone down Grafton Street, he lugged it around the jazz clubs here. He lent his services to FFF or, formed his own band, The Liz McComb Swinging Lovers. He's sat at more than one piano, loosening his tie and pretending, with a last vestige of stiff Beckettian dignity, that it was the piano that drank, not him. The quote is from, and it's Tom Waits, the most celestial of showbiz tramps, we naturally think of when opening 'Dusk' (2), the first serious (?) offering from said Sherlock. "Like a Diamond" smells of a smoky piano bar, like there used to be when bars were open and you could smoke in them. His voice, rubbed with malt, hops, dark tobacco, offers the advice of an old pirate ("burn all your bridges, burn all your friends...") and gets the support of a gospel choir. Five tracks later, the same voices, transformed into she-devils, chant "let's get down, let's get down...", encouraging us to join them at the bottom of the bottle. In the meantime, Paddy has shown us that he's been to New Orleans, at least in spirit - "In Heaven's Name", with its deeply ingrained fatalism ("day by day, all our tomorrows turn to yesterdays..."). And that he must have had some affinity with Leon Redbone Mose Allison Bobby, or further afield and Troup. Make no mistake, we're in the minor key here, even anecdotal. Sherlock is not immune to a mundane boogie, an ordinary blues. But how can you not clink glasses with a guy who lets the bells ring after a final ballad for the road, whispered hoarsely to the lampshade, making you believe that its pale glow is that of a setting sun ("When the Sun Goes Down")..." --- François Gorin, TÉLÉRAMA ---.