John McLean Allan's formative years were spent with both the Scottish Tradition and Rock'n'Roll. Stand Easy is a curious amalgam of fish and fowl and is something of an American answer to Wolfstone. However, this CD is a case of music at odds with production, as I shall endeavor to explain.
A pleasantly unusual aspect of Stand Easy is its division of labor. John himself wrote most of the songs and provides vocals, highland pipes, whistles, electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, and bass. He has a very able voice but splits the singing up across the project with Colin Armstrong, George Cavanaugh, Diane Browne, Pamela Browne, Laura Browne-Sorenson, and Kevin McIntyre. Rounding out the roll call are Gene Black on electric guitar; Alex Del Zoppo on keyboards; Kieran Cambpell [sic] Murray and Rettward von Doernberg on bass; and Chris Razze on drums.
John is a dangerous piper; he's talented, has a great band, and has something to say. His musical background is impeccable and he's played with artists ranging from The Chieftains to Charlotte Church to Korn. May he be blessed with strength of lung and length of days for his contributions to the American music scene. That's the good news.
The bad news is that in aspiring to the modern Rock sound, he's dragged in some of its worst elements. The rhythm section on the Rock bits is confined to and dominated by the drum. That's a shame because Chris is a fine drummer, and it seems unfair to hedge him into a commercial script. A corollary is that the bagpipe serves the drummer, an arrangement I do not remotely appreciate. There's also the typical rocker's abuse of recording privileges around 125 Hertz, making that low-end BOOM THUD BOOM that drowns out the rest of the music. There's very little interplay among the different instruments or improvisation; I can't imagine the band sounding like this live. The Rock sound on this CD obeys all the traffic lights and stop signs of American over-slick production.
Maybe John's trying to not befuddle the average American listener with the Celtic sound. Within the rather narrow boundaries described above, he and his band actually do well -- if you've been raised on the radio fodder here in the States. I think his boldest move was to start the play list out with a Trad/Rock combo set, "Slow Air / Hornpipe," which in case you're interested are actually "Dark Island" and "The Bulgarian Bandit," respectively. Most of the other songs are set in the era between the Black Crowes and the generic Gen X bands.
There are a few exceptions. "Siuthadaibh Bhlachaidh" is a Scots Gaelic number with fine vocals by Diane, Pamela, and Laura. It would have been great to hear the percussion cut loose on that one. The only song I really warmed up to was the cover of Bobby Sands' "Back Home in Derry," a nice combination of the group's Rock attitude with the heart-wrenching tale about Botany Bay.
The last song is "Scotland," an anthem about that nation's recent political developments. Hhhhmm. The liner notes state that this CD contains "commercial celtic rock music." Instead of advancing an opinion about "Scotland," I'll leave it to you readers to buy a copy of Stand Easy and ask you to ponder: WWB&BD (What Would Beavis and Butthead Do) with this song?
John, his kilt, and his pajama-sporting octopus keep their web site here.
