HALFWAY are a seven piece alt.country outfit who hail from Brisbane, Australia but who play music that is such an authentic and beautiful example of their chosen genre that it would be easy to believe that they grew up living next to Uncle Tupelo, went to school with Ryan Adams, hung out with The Jayhawks and had good ol’ Neil Young for an uncle.
All the right ingredients are here, lovingly crafted songs that capture love, loss, longing, the draw of open roads and the mystique of empty wind-swept spaces; acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, banjo, pedal steel, and harmonica all skilfully and sensitively played and put together with passion and feeling, a rock heart and a country soul.
But don’t be misled into thinking that this is just an album of overly familiar styling, you couldn’t be further from the truth, their Antipodean heritage provides a distinctive ingredient that contributes a subtle edge to the overall flavour.
Consider opening track ‘Patience Back’, a dusty glide that has at its heart a particular quality that side-steps American bands but can be heard in the work of say, The Triffids or The Go-Betweens. It is something that’s probably impossible to pinpoint or describe but its there and you know it can only be an echo of their homeland.
Again and again it’s there, in the lolloping gem of a song that is ‘Six Hours From Brisbane’; in the E-bow and pedal steel dominated ‘Compromise For A Country Girl’, but never more so than in ‘Something For Yourself’ a gentle but insistent song full of yearning and regret that builds almost imperceptibly to a breezy, optimistic closure.
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Elsewhere they up the tempo a notch or two, never blatantly rocking out but ripping along with a captivating joie de vivre. ‘Drunk Again’ starts with great drums that boom-bap, boom-bap to drive along the twin electric guitars and introduce a tale of broken promises, failed resolve and enforced remorse (“Hey I’d give it up if not for the love of it”).
‘Get Gone’ is one of the greatest ‘glad to see the back of you’ songs with its chugging rhythm and determined refrain of “Get gone/shut your fucking mouth/be gone/you keep your whereabouts unknown”. Best of all though is ‘Sure Uncertain’, containing all the qualities of the Jayhawks at their best, mixing pop, rock and country, verses rolling along towards gloriously uplifting choruses full of wailing harmonica and fervently plucked banjo. Love it!!
So impressed have I been with this album, and so eager after each play to hear it again, that it was only on the fourth or fifth play that I discovered the ‘hidden track’ that is tagged onto official closer ‘C. Q. Skyline’ - a beautiful run through of Little Feat’s ‘Willin’’ – seventh heaven!
A stunning debut that is almost too generous in the promise it offers for future releases.
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