Glenn Skuthorpe
Nothing Like Rain
Independent


If we here in Adelaide can be so bold as to claim the next big thing in Aussie country music, that name would be Glenn Skuthorpe; and this, his third album, 'Nothing Like Rain', would surely have to be his ticket to much greater things to come.

On stage, the mountainously-built Skuthorpe commands his audience's attention by the use of his gently conveyed, slightly weather-worn vocals and honest, sincerely felt tales of rural desolation and urban displacement; raw emotions that are both perfectly captured and contained here on disc.

Bleeding, the CD's opener, is an immediate calling card that demonstrates Skuthorpe's natural appreciation of the use of strong, yet poetically simple imagery. "Told her a million times now don't be late/She'll make up a story that I know I won't believe... There's a girl playing games with my broken heart in mind," he semi-comically wails in a way that only country artists know how on track two, Bridges. Redfern Girl merely suggests a yearning for a place to belong and for someone to love, with the title track a faultless example of his telling of disparate rural life.

Short, stark and beautifully descript in a manner evident of Springsteen at his finest, Nothing Like Rain, like many of his compositions, avoids overstaying its welcome by saying all that it needs to before slowly drifting someplace further down that dry, dusty and oh-so-lonesome road, if not only in one's mind.

Providing just enough small cracks in his empathetically well tuned voice, Jackie is a bittersweet lament of a forlorn past, one that warns of a lesson best heeded. On a more searching, optimistic note Skuthorpe depicts Jesus as a country crooning saviour and, in Busting Out, he takes off on a one night stand, again despite any frivolity hinted, his characters are brought to life with a much darker background to explore.

'Nothing Like Rain' is an album that's chock full of tunes that are perfect for either long distance driving or a night at home on the range; songs borne from six strings and suitcases that touch lightly upon those few vital universal clichˇs to remind you that life can really be like that.

Steve Jones