greg macpherson band
good times coming back again
'Old-fashioned working-class roots-rock is something that is overlooked too often nowadays.
Quality music with a message, held high over the laddered steps of folk music, is also something that is not easy to find. Many post-hardcore bands have reached into their socialist upbringings to cover the occasional traditional folk song with an updated edge. A punk version of a Phil Ochs or Pete Seeger song is easy to come by. Well-written, acoustic or soft-electric-driven originals with a purpose are difficult to find.
As a matter of fact, the only real and successful pioneer in that field over the past ten years, has been Ani DiFranco, and that may be the best contemporary to use as comparison for Greg MacPherson.
Canadian-born and blue-collar-proud writer Greg MacPherson's second full-length CD, "Good Times Coming Back Again," leans toward making him the male counterpart of DiFranco. Now that Ani has given up the message, though, he may be a queenless king.
His music is potent, his message is clear, and his voice is distinguishable, and at times its low vibrato and sometimes spoken-word rhythm is even reminiscent of DiFranco's.
He has taken the singer/songwriter nature of his music and brought it one step further by rounding it out with a full band. The occasional synthesizer and effects pedal congeals into a rough finish over the music's stripped-down sound, providing the songs with dimensions that can be twisted and turned around into a variety of vantage points.
The songs are like sonic Rubik's cubes, presenting different tones and patterns with each of those twists and turns. Sometimes, it's a struggle to align each side up with all of the same colors. Other times, it is the collision of varicolored shapes that creates beauty.
Ultimately, the sides are not too hard to line up. The songs are simple, honest, and forthright. The music makes you picture MacPherson in jeans and a white undershirt, sitting alone at the bar drinking a domestic beer; a picture often associated with similar sounding singing/songwriting trailblazer Bruce Springsteen.
Maybe, then, that's a better comparison. He's more of The Boss than an angry feminist.