Veteran British folkie Clive Gregson (Any Trouble, Gregson & Collister, Richard Thompson Band) mixes hopeful love songs and melancholy stories on Comfort and Joy. Gregson comes from the 70's style singer/songwriter school of thought, mixing thoughtful rhymes, and catchy choruses that make this CD stick in your head for awhile after hearing it.
"Frances O'Connor," "I'm There for You," "It's You I Want to Hold," "Catholic Girl," "If I Was Your Lover," "Riding on a Bus," and "Pretty Peggy-O" all deal with themes of love, or lust, or longing, or all three at the same time. "Antidote" which could be the lost England Dan & John Ford Coley song, posits the view that all of these things are good, and should never be done away with:
I hope they never find the antidote for love
Cos if there's one thing that comes from above
It's the feeling that nothing matters
When someone is by your side
I hope they never find the antidote for love...
"Fingerless Gloves" is a tale of a young girl playing and singing in a subway station for spare change, and a tale of thankfulness in that the author has never had to do the same. "String of Pearls" features a sense of foreboding, in that the title subject represents a precursor to bad news. "Comfort and Joy" portrays a woman alone during the holidays, trying to do her best to put a bright face on things but still missing her husband, who has been gone for twenty years.
Gregson does all of the singing and playing here, and his style is that of Harry Chapin at times, and Michael Card at others, or perhaps an acoustic version of The Waterboys. Comfort and Joy shows him to be at the top of his game lyrically, mixing wistful tunes with outstanding musicianship.
3.5 tocks
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