Bend The River - So Long Joan Fontaine

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 14 / 8 / 2014

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'So Long Joan Fontaine’ is the second album by Halifax, Nova Scotia-based alt. country/folk band Bend The River. The band make music that’s heavy in soul, gentle on ear and drenched in stories and tales that weave their way through the album. Self-confessed cinema lover Ronok Sarkar is the creative force behind the band and projects this passion into the album which he cites as being something that captures "All the things you remember but never saw." The album is littered with yarns spun about various characters and their various mishaps and fortunes. From the upbeat ‘Jenny and the Night Before’ to the brooding and lovelorn ‘Assassins’ pretty much all genres and emotions are touched upon to make 'So Long Joan Fontaine' a well-rounded affair. There are moments that sound like a homely Lynyrd Skynyrd, particularly on ‘The Hunter in Me,’ but also some songs such as 'This Heart Of Mine’ and 'We Still Don’t Know’ give off a Ben Harper reggae-meets-Americana vibe which as it goes it a fairly good combination While it’s rooted in country, it takes cues from right across the board without spilling over into a big mess as a result of there being too much crammed in for the sake of eclecticism. There is a tender warmth to ‘So Long Joan Fontaine’ which is in part to down to the earthy way in which it was recorded that gives it a natural and spacious feel, but also the depth of musicians involved also gives the album that extra spectrum to let the songs really take flight. This is an album of songs that revel in the complexities of peoples’ lives, and the odd ways they can turn out and that’s got to be worth putting to music.

Track Listing:-

1 Jenny and the Night Before
2 The Hunter in Me
3 Assassins
4 This Heart of Mine
5 The Hour Comes Down
6 No One Else to Blame
7 Half of My Love
8 The Air
9 We Still Don't Know
10 Dear Old Jackson
11 The Echo and the Sway

Band Links:-

https://twitter.com/bendtheriver
http://www.bendtheriver.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bend-the-River/21775291785

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