Don McGlashan – Bright November Morning: Album Review

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Don McGlashan finally gets his Bright November Morning, but a few months later than planned. Fortunately, good things are worth waiting for.

Originally set for an October 29th release, Don McGlashan’s 4th solo album has seemed to find its own time and place. Listening to the 10 songs that make up Bright November Morning at the end of February in  Auckland and one can’t help but feel that, with all the crisis both here in NZ and around the world, that Don’s reassuring, yet melancholic voice, is exactly what we need right now.

The album was recorded primarily at Ben Edwards Sitting Room in Lyttelton with “The Others” who are James Duncan (bass/keys/bvs), Chris O’Connor (drums/percussion/bvs) and Shayne P. Carter (lead guitar/bvs), with McGlashan singing, playing guitar, keys and his trusty euphonium.

Helping out along the way are The Beths, Hollie Smith, Anita Clark and Emily Fairlight.

The album begins with Lights Come On and as Don sings the opening line, ‘There’s a guitar with its six string wound up tight”, one can’t help but feel both comforted and uneasy in equal measure.

And, that sums up this record (which should be listened to in its entirety) in a nutshell.

Carter’s soft squalling guitar sets the perfect tone for McGlashan’s passionate, yet sorrowful vocal, creating a trance that gets broken with the next track, a more upbeat John Bryce.

Bryce, as Kiwis should know, was the NZ government’s “Minister for Native Affairs” back in the 1880s and is known for passing legislation enabling police to hold Maori land without trial. Musically, the band really cooks here over a simmering Bo Diddley-style beat and Carter’s guitar stings along with Don’s lyrics…”they burnt the houses, smashed the gardens, held the men without a trial”…all this on a Bright November Morning.

O’Connor locks into a Motorik beat on Go Back In as Shayne’s guitar sails about. Sunscreen begins with a rippling acoustic guitar. It’s a song about a child learning to walk at the beach with “the smell of sunscreen mixed with ice cream”. The dreamy track finds the singer “endlessly rocking…out of the cradle”.

Other highlights include an eerie, hallucinatory ode to Ernest Shackleton and the heartbreaking  Song For Sue that will surely remind long-time fans of The Front Lawn’s Andy. This beautiful elegy features Anita Clark’s violin and Don’s horn…simply stunning.

The album closes with Start Again, featuring the reassuring lyric, “you don’t have to make it happen all the time…close your eyes, get some rest’.

So, as world and local events swirl around us, take Don McGlashan’s advice…close your eyes…and listen to Bright November Morning.

Marty Duda

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Marty Duda
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