Alan Power - Songs to Break America

Alan Power is continuing in the well-worn tradition of crooning cowboys, but he’s not even a cowboy. Or from the US. Still, his brand of country ballads - via the classic songwriting of Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen - made debut album ‘Greatest Hits vol. 1’ an instant classic. Follow up, ‘Songs to Break America’ is an album of beautifully-crafted songs of love, loss, and redemption, which peaks with closer ‘Breathe In: Breathe Out’. Its slow, laconic guitars are reminiscent of JJ Cale playing at half-speed; Alan’s droning vocals - as throughout - are glorious, laced with droll punchlines. There’s a hopeful bounce here that leaves the songs with you long after they’ve finished. Good, old-fashioned songwriting with a country twang.