My Darling Clementine - Still Testifying (2017)

Word and reputation of My Darling Clementine having gradually grown over the course of the last three albums, the most recent being The Other Half, an audio book and live show project built around their songs with crime writer Mark Billingham.,

Michael Weston King and wife Lou Dalgleish, aka My Darling Clementine, return with Still Testifying, their third loosely conceptual collection of troubled relationship-themed songs. This time, however, featuring an impressive roster of musicians whose ranks include guitarist Martin Belmont, Alan Cook on pedal steel, bassist Kevin Foster, Geraint Watkins playing organ and accordion and Nick Penetelow on sax, it sees a further move away from the countrypolitan sound of the debut with its George and Tammy template into more country soul waters.

It gets underway with The Embers and the Flame, a rework of The Other Half show closer Precious As The Flame, co-penned by the duo and Billingham, about the difference between love and in love, only this time with more resonator guitar and a lashing of horns driving it along.

They trade verses on Lou’s waltzing road song piano/organ country soul ballad Eugene, a song born from, but not about, her being taken ill in America and being cared for in the titular Oregon town. From here, it moves on to another slow number, Michael’s 60s Atlantic soul-infused Yours Is The Cross That I Still Bear (originally stripped down contribution to the Bear Records Family 40th Anniversary box set) about the connections that are hard to break, even when a relationship ends.

Something that characterises a lot of his writing is the way he sneaks in references to other songs, and he’s having a field day on the soft waltzing duet Since I Fell For You, one of the more honky-tonk flavoured numbers, with lyrical nods to Helen Shapiro (“walking back to happiness”), The Searchers (“every time that you walk in the room”) James Bland (1880 minstrel tune Hand Me Down My Walking Cane), Elvis Costello (“I tripped at every step”) Ray Price (“my shoes keep walking back to you”) and even Crowded House (“I fall at your feet”) as well as interpolating Van Morrison and Penn/Moman as they sing about going “from the dark end of the road to the bright side of the street.”

Echoing the guitar lines of Last Train To Clarkesville and the tune of Silver Threads and Golden Needles, There’s Nothing You Can Tell Me (That I Don’t Already Know) is another of the more country track about a couple who’ve been around their separate blocks a few times but are still willing to give love another shot.