Alan Tyler And The Lost Sons Of Littlefield - Middle Saxon Town (Hanky Panky)
UK release date: 20 November 2006
Wind the clock back a handful of decades, and imagine that country music developed in the Home Counties instead of the American South and you get ex-Rockgingbird Alan Tyler, producing stories of growing up poor in his Middle Saxon Town, delivered in a voice that wavers between Nashville twang and flat Metroland vowels.
The single has a spoken word introduction, and at first the culture clash is almost comedic, but your ear soon settles to it as you listen to his condemnation of dirty rivers and rising house prices and you realise that the Lost Sons of Littlefield are exactly what they seem to be - a workmanlike blue-collar country band you find all over the southern states, entertaining every weekend in the dancehalls.
Tyler's music looks back to when country and folk were much closer together, the songs with a narrative to tell, the music heavy on fiddle and guitar picking - the fiddle playing on the b-side, Favourite Child, is particularly fine. It is perhaps being out of context that makes their sound seem so refreshing, but this is good, honest music, played with craftsmanship, decidedly easy on the ear.
