FOOTHILL DANDY

$25.00

MAYBE I MIGHT
SWAMP CITY
ALL FALLS DOWN
DON’T GO THERE
ASLEEP AT WHEEL
BEST KEPT SECRET
I’LL PAY YOU BACK
I’M ALRIGHT
ONE TIME
DON’T COME CRYING
YOU SERVE ME WELL

 

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Description

 Melbourne contemporary singer songwriter, Cyndi Boste, has just released her fourth CD. The oddly named Foothill Dandy takes it’s name from the foothills of Melbourne’s Dandenong ranges where Cyndi grew up. It’s a return to her formative years in those foothills, the intensity of childhood experience and the doors that it opens and shuts. In these foothills, trannie to ear, Cyndi absorbed a wide range of musical influences from Fleetwood Mac and Janis Joplin to Jim Reeves, Peggy Lee and Patsy Cline. “This is my most country album, so far”, says Cyndi. It’s also more diverse than her previous three critically lauded CD ’s (Home Truths, Push Comes to Shove, Scrambled Eggs) “It’s really got a retro vibe about it” Cyndi explains. “It’s a bit like distilling a five hour slab of Magic 693 and making a bunch of new tunes to old flavours”. The feels and styles of Foothill Dandy encompass gospel, pop, driving blues, torch songs, grungy pop and barefaced country. Track one, the sunny and totally country, Maybe I Might, is followed by Swamp City’s raunchy electric slide and loping back beat. It’s Cyndi’s money-for-nothing, chicks-for-free song, but it also highlights Melbourne’s incredibly fertile musician scene: “you can pull a band together in a couple of hours, get the job done, even make it sound pretty…”

Listeners report hearing echoes of Tom Petty, KD Lang, Roy Orbison, Bobby Gentry, The Byrds and JJ Cale, and though the strength, raunch and warm maturity of Cyndi’s voice evoke names such as Lucinda Williams and Bonnie Raitt, she’s more your gutsy inner-city kid than your country diva.The album’s diversity also runs to it’s themes: love, of course, in it’s lost, found and on-the-rocks incarnations, frustration, youthful discovery, and there’s perceptive and sympathetic triptych of portraits. Just as many songs, however, are dedicated to the joys and woes of hard working musicians. (Swamp City, I’ll Pay You Back, and You Serve Me Well). “Well, you gotta have a bitch sometimes” Cyndi chuckles, “It’s good to get it out”.Though Cyndi’s music can be passionately blue, it never whines. You’re more likely to be touched and healed than sent scuttling for Prozac.It’s usually the hooky music, smoky intimacy and bluesy musicality of Cyndi’s voice that ensnare the casual listener, but it’s her lyrics that make them life long fans. Listen well and on your tenth playing, you can still pick up sly jokes, sneaky word play and wry insights in a song you took for a toe-tapper.Recorded at Audrey studios in Coburg Victoria, and co produced by Cyndi and the artful Craig Pilkington, the CD features the core of her live show sidemen, with Dave Folley on drums, Stephen O’Prey on Bass and the unspeakably talented Garrett Costigan on pedal steel. Equally pivotal is the genius keyboard of Bruce Haymes, on both swirling broody Hammond and striding, rocking piano. Matt Walker’s searing guitar and lap steel are almost a second voice on songs such as Best Kept Secret, Swamp City, and Asleep At the Wheel. Gerry Hale also makes an appearance on fiddle, mandolin and banjo. Add Craig Pilkington’s guitar’s and trumpets and you’re in for quite the musical ride… and that’s not to mention Rob Price’s wailing harmonica and some vocal support from the likes of Kerri Simpson, Nichaud Fitzgibbon, Kylie Auldist and Rory Boast.

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