Dawn (HopeStreet Recordings, 2014)
It never fails when my local NPR station rolls out its Australian trip giveaway I get a dose of some didgeridoo or a snippet of “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.” But what certainly I don’t get from this public radio station is Australia’s indigenous singer Emma Donovan and yet she is just a part of Australia’s musical landscape as anything put out by Men at Work. Good news for us it that Ms. Donovan and her backing band The Putbacks has followed up their 2010 Busted/Set Me Free release with their latest Dawn, out on November 11th on the HopeStreet Recordings label. Lush with flashes of soul, blues, rock, gospel and R & B, Emma Donovan & The Putbacks sizzles with Ms. Donovan’s powerful vocals and the sharp savviness of The Putbacks.
Ms. Donovan explains her background, “I grew up on lots of country music Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette and the older kind of country gospel from my grandparents who wrote gospel songs and old hymns. My Nan and Pop were church singers. Mum and her brothers had a band called the Donovans. It was the time where I first learnt to sing and learn harmonies, from my grandparents, uncles and mum.”
She goes on to say, “My dad’s music collection was different to my mum’s country classics. I listen to blackfella musical all the time, now and my dad was always the blackfella music library. I knew No Fixed Address, Coloured Stone, Archie and Ruby and all that music because of my dad. He also had an amazing blues collection, Lavern Baker to Etta James to Robert Cray. Deep down I loved it more than my mum’s country stuff. It just struck me more, I could relate to it.”
With solo recordings Ngarraanga (2009) and Changes (2010) to her credit, Ms. Donovan has managed to capture the heartache of country and blues standards with the big boldness of soul on Dawn. Upping the ante are percussionist Justin Marshall, keyboardist Simon Mavin, guitarist Tom Martin, drummer Rory McDougall and bassist Mick Meagher of members of The Putbacks. Opening with some seriously slick guitar licks, Dawn opens with the low-slung grittiness of “Black Woman.”
Rock edged and bluesy, this track comes at the listener full force with backing vocals by Lou Bennett and Deline Briscoe. Ms. Donovan with Mr. Meagher, writing all the songs, but for “My Goodness” which was written with the addition of Mr. Martin, Dawn is soulful down to the bone as evidenced by tracks like title track “Dawn” and the bluesy “Mother.” Wrapping up heartache, struggle and grief up a sound that the compellingly ferocious. Fans get a dose of the fiery with rock guitar licks and drumming on the offering “Daddy” and measure of gospel goodness with “Keep Me in Your Reach.” Equally good is “Come Back to Me” with its slow sultry vocals and the soul soaked “Voodoo.”
Ms. Donovan notes Dawn emerged after a time of personal hardship by saying, “A lot of these songs were written and brought to life during the time I was getting my strength back, and getting back on my feet again. It was a challenge to get these songs out, but to share them with musicians that had the right respect felt good, and I got back some confidence in myself.”
She also points out, “It’s not easy to find people who play music with the right intention and heart, also attitude and respect, especially when you express something personal and from a hard place. This collaboration couldn’t have been in a genuine, safer and solid place for me, personally it’s really taken me back home but with a different family.”
No offense to kookaburras or gum trees, but it’s time for listeners to get a different take on Australia’s music scene and no better start than Emma Donovan & The Putbacks’s Dawn.
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
