Matt Joe Gow & Kerryn Fields – I Remember You (Album Review)

Matt Joe Gow and Kerryn Fields team up on this, their debut collaborative album, designed to get your New Zealand Music Month off on the right foot.

We here at The 13^th Floor love it when our friends play nice together. And that just what Matt and Kerryn do here. Both are Kiwi artists who are now based in Melbourne and both have been making wonderful country/folk/Americana music for several years now.

Hearing their voices blend on opening track, and debut single, Your Heart Of Gold, and you immediately know this was a match made in musical heaven.

Each singer has a strong, distinctive voice…and sometimes that combination can work against a good duet…but not in this case.

The duo trade verses and harmonize with each other with ease. ..they really mix it up on the upbeat hoedown that is Prairie Song.

The pacing throughout the 10 tracks is well thought out…following the bouncy Whirlwind comes a slow, meditative No Trace. Carry On is a gorgeous 50s-style piano ballad, sung mainly by Matt, with Kerryn just adding a harmony here and there.

The two kick up their heels on the aforementioned Prairie Song and then get down with the bluesy Love Ya Like I Can that is as much fun to hear as it must have been to record.

The mood does darken on the second half with the appropriately named Black Sand and the pensive It Dawned On Me.

The production throughout is sparse and measured…a touch of mandolin here, a blow on the harmonica there and that string bass on Dead Flowers & Stale Wine sure sounds sweet.

Matt and Kerryn call this their “ragged acoustic style”. Whatever the genre…this is good music.

Marty Duda

 

Click here to watch Matt and Kerryn perform Your Heart Of Gold at The 13th Floor