Top-quality Americana from late starter Dave

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

Available Light, the debut album by the American songwriter David Corley, is proof that it’s never too late to begin. Corley, who released the record at the age of 53, plays Campbell’s Tavern, Cloughanover next Monday, May 9.

Available Light is a great track-by-track listen. It closes with a song called The Calm Revolution. How did that one come about?

“The Calm Revolution is a psychedelic epic, ha!” he says. “But it is. The magic of a sort of worldwide trip, for everyone, if we could all just shut up and listen.  Put down our differences, and just hear the world turn. It’s not meant as a protest song, but a calm trip, saying, ‘hey, easy now, everyone, let’s get together on this’.”

If you like your Americana rugged, with a full sound that brings to mind artists like Mark Lanegan, Lucinda Williams and Tom Waits, then this is the gig for you.

Corley is part of a six-piece band coming to Campbell’s. Among the group is Tony Scherr, whom David is quick to praise.

“Tony plays guitar and bass all over my records.  He is, quite simply, a genius,” Corley says.  “Tony plays around the world, he tours with the Bill Frisell Trio, plays with Keith Richards, and is a sometime member of Willie Nelson’s band.  We’ll be in the studio, recording, and the song is sounding great, and then you see a light go off in Tony’s head, and he says, “no, that’s not right.  I have the wrong bass”, and he’ll go digging through a pile of basses in the corner, start in on a completely different tack, and suddenly, the song is turned on its head.”

David will also be joined by Gregor Beresford, Kate Fenner, Sarah McDermott and his producer Hugh Christopher Brown.

“The end result of having all these great souls and musicians around is that we are a band, instead of a bunch of studio players overdubbing in the studio,” he says.  “There’s a real all-for-one and one-for-all feel to everything we attempt.”

David hails from Indiana, and went to college in Athens, Georgia. There, two seminal things in his life happened – he discovered a thriving music scene and the records of Tom Waits.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.