Mark W. Lennon : Home of the Wheel

[John (Biscuits and Gravy) Davy]

www.lennonmark.com

A couple of years ago, Mark W Lennon had a short album out called Down the Mountain. It was a wee gem of an album that belied its Californian origin to sound like the sweetest slice of Appalachia-inspired music that you could hope to hear – laid back and flowing easily from beginning to end. Sure, there were dark lyrical currents running under that surface sweetness, but it was a very easy album to engage with.

             In many ways this new album follows directly on from that earlier work. A full album of eleven songs this time, Home of the Wheel features several of the same musicians and similarly taps into earlier forms of American music, sounding something like Levon Helm might if he’d taken a slightly different tack. The difference is that the anguish, confusion and regret for times lost that seems to come through the lyrics is more overtly expressed in the music – and nowhere more so than in Mark Lennon’s singing. Where the crack in his voice had earlier sounded like tenderness, now the pain in it seems to come through more. This is especially so because his phrasing here is so halting, almost staccato; the words come in pulses and each pulse seems to open with his voice at its most anguished. The upshot is that even with songs strong enough to stop you in your tracks – as many of them are – there is no flow, no oases of calm to shelter in before the next burst of angst. I’d welcome hearing almost any of these songs on the radio; there’s a seriousness and an emotional intensity about them that marks them out from the crowd. Taken one after the other, however, I find them a little hard going.

              The standout song for me is The River Stays the Same, a statement of philosophical comfort in troubling times. Here he taps right into the dignity of the human spirit at its best and the steady rolling pulse of the band is spurred along by Scarlet Rivera’s fiddle, sounding exactly the same as she did all those years ago with Bob Dylan. Overall, I feel slightly puzzled by his intent with this album, just because it seems at odds with the spirit on Down the Mountain; maybe put the two together and you get a balanced view of Mark W Lennon, musician. 

John Davy