Nick Ferrio and His Feelings - Introducing Nick Ferrio and His Feelings

  by Andrew Carver

published: 30 / 10 / 2012

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Review

Nick Ferrio hails from the Ottawa Valley town of Peterborough, where he also serves as a player for cabaret crowd the Burning Hell, and fuzzy Dinosaur Jr. appreciators Baby Eagle & The Proud Mothers. On his debut album he gets in touch with his country side for some old-timey ballads. The nine tracks on ‘Introducing Nick Ferrio & His Feelings’ clock in at just under a half-hour and should off his fondness for old school, pedal steel-flavoured country, a quirky, wry humour. Ferrio shows off his fondness for wordplay, running through and contrasting the many meanings of ‘Iris’ and ‘Nick’ in ‘Popiular Flower’, a paean to his lady love. Though the sounds are fairly traditional, Ferrio puts a bit of a twist in some of his tunes. The true-life tale, ‘The Trial of Mary Harshbarger’, gives a fairly accurate rundown of the case of a woman who allegedly mistook her husband for a bear and shot him (she got off and later married her brother-in-law). ‘Always Searching’ transforms a plaintive love song into an out-and-out demand for fornication. In ‘Free Man, Switzerland’, Ferrio turns the usual country rebel into someone grumbling about the Swiss police, with some decidedly non-traditional guitar fuzz. (His frequent travels get another airing in when returns to Europe for a tribute to the inner ferocity of zoo bears in ‘Kollnischer Park’.) He turns old-style murder ballads on their head in ‘Otanabee’ where the guy gets it instead of the girl. In live performance, he’s introduced ‘Otanabee’ - the name of a local river, where the tune’s protagonist drowns - as a response to tunes like the ever-popular ‘Pretty Polly’. Anyone who enjoys their country music heartfelt, old school and a bit off-kilter should greatly enjoy their introduction to Ferrio and company.

Track Listing:-

1 Night Garden
2 Popular Flower
3 Always Searching
4 Free Man, Switzerland
5 Otonabee
6 Story's Long, Story's Old
7 Köllnischer Park
8 The Trial of Mary Harshbarger
9 When We Sang Together

Band Links:-

http://www.nickferrio.com/
https://twitter.com/ferrioinstereo
http://nickferrio.bandcamp.com/
http://www.songkick.com/artists/502942
https://www.facebook.com/ferrioinstere