With fifteen years of service
behind him, Steve McGill is a familiar name on the Nottingham circuit. Before
listening to this album I would recommend taking in one of his previous
offerings of original material to get a feel for his sound. The reason for this
is simply because I would hate for him to be dismissed as simply a covers
artist of no discernible merit. Mindful of the fact that there is little if any
money in a large section of the local scene, McGill is one of the few artists,
if not the only one, who acknowledges that the covers gigs are what provide for
his family. With this string to his bow, he is also one of the few artists who
will be recognised by an audience indifferent to the fact that Nottingham even
has a music scene.
Covered is a collection of, would you believe, cover versions available from
Steve’s website. You could call it his The Spaghetti Incident,
but I won’t.
Opening with the Goo Goo Dolls
song ‘Iris’, Steve has recorded the whole album as live, and in one take. Every
track is perfectly suited to Steve’s gravelly, Cocker-esque voice (Joe, not
Jarvis), and accompanied by nothing but an acoustic guitar. It is well worth
listening all the way through, because in keeping with the ‘one take’ ethos,
there’s the occasional false start (and an “oh bollocks”) and fluffed guitar,
at one point asking if he can start again. A lot of musicians would be too
insecure to expose this side of themselves in their work, but we’re all human
and the occasional fuck up can be charmingly incorporated into a fine
collection of songs.
‘Walking in Memphis’ could be
an original song, such is McGill’s total immersion in the music, as could ‘Sun in
the Morning’. Playing familiar songs from The Killers, David Grey, Deacon Blue,
and Johnny Cash (a cover of a cover as it were; Cash’s version of the Nine Inch
Nails classic ‘Hurt’), one can imagine watching him perform this album as a
gig. Maybe that’s an idea for the follow up – a live collection of covers; this
is subtitled as Volume One after all!
