Poet & The Dreamer

A quick scan down the sleeve notes of Poet & the Dreamer, and you could be forgiven for thinking that former swing musician Neville Skelly was yet another Scouser trying to restore the former glories of his city's Merseybeat scene. Indeed, two covers of classic Beatles songs ("Eleanor Rigby," "Mother Nature's Son") and several co-writes with members of psychedelic revivalists the Coral don't exactly suggest that the 34-year-old is too keen to distance himself from Liverpool's musical heritage. But even though its 14 tracks are resolutely steeped in the sounds of the '60s, its influences are from much further afield than his hometown, with nods to the vintage Nashville of Johnny Cash on the steel pedal-laden title track, the avant-garde crooning of Scott Walker on the gently plucked acoustics and skittering rhythms of "Colours Collide," and the trippy folk-rock of Dion, whose back catalog he raids twice with "He Looks a Lot Like Me" and "The Road I'm On (Gloria)," not to mention homages to Jackson C. Frank on a faithful rendition of "Blues Run the Game," and Woody Guthrie on a driving country-rock interpretation of "900 Miles," the only time the album moves from its sedate pace into second gear. The album's reliance on classic familiar material suggests Skelly isn't confident enough about his transition from big-band maestro to world-weary troubadour. But inspired by a recent marriage break-up, he appears to have channeled all the pain and torment into eight original compositions which are just as accomplished, whether it's the Richard Hawley-esque "Child of the Morning," the beachside melancholy of "The World Turns Around," or the flashes of kaleidoscopic synths and eerie psychedelic guitars on the uncharacteristically ambient "There's a World," all of which complement Skelly's suitably bruised and smoke-stained vocals. Aptly titled The Poet and the Dreamer is perhaps a little too languid to transcend its cultish nature, but it's a beautifully dream-like affair which, along with fellow Scouser Delta Maid's recent debut, cements Liverpool's growing reputation as an unlikely hotbed of Americana talent. ~ Jon O'Brien, Rovi