Wyckham Porteous - May/June 1998
Style: ragged roots
Lineup: Wyckham Porteous (lead vocals, guitar, harmonica); Pat Stewart (drums) and Rob Becker (bass) and various guests
Contact: Pacific Music Marketing, 341 Richmond Avenue, Victoria BC V8S 3Y2, (250) 598-1997; FAX (250) 598-1923
In This World, the fourth album from this edgey roots singer-songwriter is world class. Produced and arranged by ex Captain Beefheart guitarist Moris Tepper (Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, Frank Black, P.J. Harvey), the 13 tracks were mixed by Joe Ciccarelli (Beck, Frank Zappa, U2). With traces of John Hiatt and Bob Dylan (& son), Porteous’s lyrics are spun in ways that are familiar, then not. Lines jump out like the beauty of a petrified tree along a rural highway. “Playing my guitar on the Eric Hoeniker train/I just got into Holland surrounded by graves,” begins the pop-rocker “Radio London”. On the soft-talkin’ “Collar To The Wind” and eerie stillness of “Shine On Me”, the BC-based artist addresses the death of a loved one. Pure radio hits are the title track and the “Jimmy Lefave Goes To Hibbing, Minnesota”.