大象传媒

I recall Phil Vernon as a feature of the Menagerie Bar in Belfast, playing acoustic guitar, equally at home with the indie kids and the folk set. He used weird tunings and sang in a voice full of remorse and duff experiences. He was class.

These days, he's based in Galway and his art is even more impressive. This self-financed album has a plaintive ring that immediately set you thinking of Nick Drake. Likewise with the cover artwork, featuring a guy under a tree, having a right old think.

The track Crazy is all buzzing blues and rising anxiety. The boy meets a former girlfriend, asks for some cash and shuffles off. There's a cheery note on So Fine, like some Mississippi blues when the sun starts to glint. 听The other songs go jack-knifing between despair, elation and the dread of Hurricane.

Dolbro Dan sounds like a guy who listens to Woody Guthrie, Rambling Jack Elliott and the Greenwich Village folkniks of 1963. The three songs on this CD have a humorous tilt, so we're now talking up a 1964 release, Another Side of Bob Dylan. Indeed, when Bob Was Still A Boy is an amusing reference to the man. The voice and the playing are cool and hopefully Dan will take his music deeper next time.

Stuart Bailie

PHILIP J. VERNON
Philip J Vernon (White)

DOLBRO DAN
When Bob Was Still A Boy (White)