THE MULLIGAN BROTHERS – VIA PORTLAND

2014 – Self Released
First listen to this album was a bit of a shock to my system, seemingly having more in common with melodic ‘pop’ music (something that generally does absolutely nothing for me) than ‘roots’ music! As it progressed it became obvious that this recording is only distantly related to ‘pop’ and in fact despite the warm mellow melodicism it actually has more in common with the roots music that I love so much. In fact, that is the beauty of this pretty much unique recording. With repeated listening sessions it has gradually inveigled itself into my world of ‘roots music’ thanks in part to the subtle instrumentation that adds a little ‘spikiness’ to proceedings. The all round ‘warmth’ of the recording takes it to a hitherto unknown place, certainly to my ears, a place of gorgeous melodies on excellent songs, the warmest vocal style and harmonies you are likely to hear, but, and this is what makes it an exceptional album, there is a barely discernible underlying tension in many of the songs. The consistency of the mellifluous vocals and the subtlety of the instrumentation take the recording from what would be merely a pleasant listen into an album that heavily repays repeated listening sessions.
Most songs are slow and moody, but strong, the arrangements beautifully thought out and recorded and the generally sparse instrumentation beautifully played, ensuring that varied tempos are unnecessary thanks to the all round quality. Despite the warm vocals, harmonies and arrangements this is an unusual album, but one that could easily cross over into the mainstream and bring them success. Much of the ‘spikiness’ is also thanks in part to the poetic lyrics that are often very dark, something that emphasises the unusual flavor providing an excellent contrast to the gentle sounds
This talented band consists of Ross Newell on lead vocals, guitar, and songwriting, Gram Rea plays fiddle, mandolin, viola, harmonica and vocals, Ben Leininger on bass and vocals and Greg DeLuca, drums and vocals. I’ve seen them described as folksy bluegrass or vice versa and to their credit there are none of the histrionics often associatedwith bluegrass, although when a band is this good any dressing up of their music would be superfluous anyway, but I’m still not too sure about the bluegrass
The album is beautifully mixed with the vocals always dominant, but the often subtle bass and percussion lay a perfect foundation, whilst the fiddle and other expertly played instruments add colour to the gorgeous sound. In writing all of the songs, Ross Newell is obviously totally attuned to his and his band mates strengths with these songs and a sound that cannot afford any weak links of which fortunately there are none. The vocals and instrumentation are perfectly matched to the songs that have a strong folksiness rather than any obvious, but just discernible, country influences, but more by way of perhaps an occasional ‘old timey’ feel rather than the often quoted bluegrass that many people seem to hear in their
The album opens with the slow, almost mournful Wait For Me with an excellent warm lead vocal and incredible harmonies. The fairly sparse instrumentation and excellent fiddle solo add a strong rootsiness to what I thought initially was a mellow pop rock song! Calamine is a real beauty of a song on which the chiming guitar beautifully supports the lead vocal, with interjections from bass and violin on a folk song whose gentle sound belies the fact that it is actually a powerful murder ballad. Road That Leads Me Home includes a lovely sawing high lonesome fiddle and acoustic guitar with gentle percussion and a tremendous lead vocal on a song that is full of spaciness and longing plus those gorgeous harmonies making this a beguilingly memorable song. Louise has a speedier tempo with sawing fiddle and excellent solid percussion allied to chiming mandolin driving the song along at a gentle mid tempo that thanks to the instrumentation has more of a high lonesome country feel. Finally, Not Always What It Seems has a title that pretty much sums up this album of contrasts, with nice guitar and mandolin allied to the percussion keeping the tempo a little upbeat on another song on which the sound contrasts with the
Whilst I have yet to hear their debut album, simply titled ‘The Mulligan Brothers,’ as a follow up ‘Via Portland’ is quite a triumph with it’s lovely flowing sound surprisingly making them pretty much unique in roots music, at least to my ears. The mellow sounds usually lend themselves more to ‘duos’ but The Mulligan Brothers as a four piece have a much more powerful dynamic, which is probably what will endear them to many more roots music aficionados than just me!
http://themulliganbrothers.com/
First listen to this album was a bit of a shock to my system, seemingly having more in common with melodic ‘pop’ music (something that generally does absolutely nothing for me) than ‘roots’ music! As it progressed it became obvious that this recording is only distantly related to ‘pop’ and in fact despite the warm mellow melodicism it actually has more in common with the roots music that I love so much. In fact, that is the beauty of this pretty much unique recording. With repeated listening sessions it has gradually inveigled itself into my world of ‘roots music’ thanks in part to the subtle instrumentation that adds a little ‘spikiness’ to proceedings. The all round ‘warmth’ of the recording takes it to a hitherto unknown place, certainly to my ears, a place of gorgeous melodies on excellent songs, the warmest vocal style and harmonies you are likely to hear, but, and this is what makes it an exceptional album, there is a barely discernible underlying tension in many of the songs. The consistency of the mellifluous vocals and the subtlety of the instrumentation take the recording from what would be merely a pleasant listen into an album that heavily repays repeated listening sessions.
Most songs are slow and moody, but strong, the arrangements beautifully thought out and recorded and the generally sparse instrumentation beautifully played, ensuring that varied tempos are unnecessary thanks to the all round quality. Despite the warm vocals, harmonies and arrangements this is an unusual album, but one that could easily cross over into the mainstream and bring them success. Much of the ‘spikiness’ is also thanks in part to the poetic lyrics that are often very dark, something that emphasises the unusual flavor providing an excellent contrast to the gentle sounds
This talented band consists of Ross Newell on lead vocals, guitar, and songwriting, Gram Rea plays fiddle, mandolin, viola, harmonica and vocals, Ben Leininger on bass and vocals and Greg DeLuca, drums and vocals. I’ve seen them described as folksy bluegrass or vice versa and to their credit there are none of the histrionics often associatedwith bluegrass, although when a band is this good any dressing up of their music would be superfluous anyway, but I’m still not too sure about the bluegrass
The album is beautifully mixed with the vocals always dominant, but the often subtle bass and percussion lay a perfect foundation, whilst the fiddle and other expertly played instruments add colour to the gorgeous sound. In writing all of the songs, Ross Newell is obviously totally attuned to his and his band mates strengths with these songs and a sound that cannot afford any weak links of which fortunately there are none. The vocals and instrumentation are perfectly matched to the songs that have a strong folksiness rather than any obvious, but just discernible, country influences, but more by way of perhaps an occasional ‘old timey’ feel rather than the often quoted bluegrass that many people seem to hear in their
The album opens with the slow, almost mournful Wait For Me with an excellent warm lead vocal and incredible harmonies. The fairly sparse instrumentation and excellent fiddle solo add a strong rootsiness to what I thought initially was a mellow pop rock song! Calamine is a real beauty of a song on which the chiming guitar beautifully supports the lead vocal, with interjections from bass and violin on a folk song whose gentle sound belies the fact that it is actually a powerful murder ballad. Road That Leads Me Home includes a lovely sawing high lonesome fiddle and acoustic guitar with gentle percussion and a tremendous lead vocal on a song that is full of spaciness and longing plus those gorgeous harmonies making this a beguilingly memorable song. Louise has a speedier tempo with sawing fiddle and excellent solid percussion allied to chiming mandolin driving the song along at a gentle mid tempo that thanks to the instrumentation has more of a high lonesome country feel. Finally, Not Always What It Seems has a title that pretty much sums up this album of contrasts, with nice guitar and mandolin allied to the percussion keeping the tempo a little upbeat on another song on which the sound contrasts with the
Whilst I have yet to hear their debut album, simply titled ‘The Mulligan Brothers,’ as a follow up ‘Via Portland’ is quite a triumph with it’s lovely flowing sound surprisingly making them pretty much unique in roots music, at least to my ears. The mellow sounds usually lend themselves more to ‘duos’ but The Mulligan Brothers as a four piece have a much more powerful dynamic, which is probably what will endear them to many more roots music aficionados than just me!
http://themulliganbrothers.com/