Reviewer: Michael Mee
Hard Luck
Raw Tone
It's impossible to avoid being swept up by the energy of the rockabilly/Blues on "Hard Luck", eventually toe-tapping and finger drumming become a reflex action. The first thing to note is the production quality, or lack of it. The sound on "Hard Luck" is a bit of a lottery. Eventually, not only do you get used to it but you'd not have it any other way. The Blues isn't pristine and well dressed and Matt Walsh has presented his dozen songs in their most natural state. Anyway with a voice like his, what need has Walsh of studio trickery, this is a force of nature best left alone. In Walsh's hands the tracks on "Hard Luck" are raw, visceral and almost brutal. He's obviously realised that he's never going to be a crooner and he's played to his strengths, attacking the Blues with a will. "Hard Luck” is rough-edged and magnificent. For a modern era, when a cover of classic is sometimes seen as a mandatory validation, it is a pleasant surprise to be presented with an album entirely of originals. While Matt Walsh is never going to make his fortune as a writer, the songs on the album are well constructed and written with that unique voice in mind. What "Hard Luck" does, above all, is present the Blues as they should be - tough, uncompromising and honest.
Michael Mee
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