Fran McGillivray Band - Some Luck (2013)

Tracklist

01. Big Front Seat
02. Sink or Swim
03. Candle Burning
04. Everybody's Gone
05. Hop High
06. In or Out
07. When a Love Grows Cold
08. Sitting On Top of the World
09. Got to Keep Moving
10. Going Real Slow
11. Some Luck
12. Give & Take
13. Last Fair Deal

With a strong following in the blues and roots music scene, the Fran McGillivray Band are an interesting proposition when you take those inspirations into consideration. They are described as a something of a ‘blues’ act, something which by its very nature conjures up sad tales and melancholy.

With this album though, that’s not the case. Many of the tracks here are surprisingly upbeat – acoustic guitars playing major chords, positive melodies – which sometimes takes this closer to folk terroitory than traditional blues.

Album highlight ‘When A Love Grows Cold’ for example is more or less straight folk, featuring fingerpicking and slide guitar beneath the female vocal delivering the relateable message ‘no one can save you when love grows cold’. Even title track ‘Some Luck’, which does draw more heavily on blues tropes, remains upbeat, with a chugging rhythm on percussion which keeps things moving and Fran McGillivray’s vocals staying well within themselves to deliver the smooth melody.

All in all then, this 13 track collection is less blues than you might expect – an almost happy-go-lucky approach seeing that the release has the potential to stand out from its peers by bucking the trend throughout.

DOWNLOAD ALBUM [flac]