Today’s world is all about breaking down borders and barriers. In today’s world, communication has reached such an advanced point that physical location matter less than it ever has.If only this applied to music as well. Alt-country music for example, was born out of the traditional country music of Tenessee and became blended with rock’n’roll to form a sound of purest Americana. It seems strange, therefore, that bands from outside the American microcosm should attempt to reproduce that particular sound. Unfortunately, this is exactly what Australian, Anthony Bautovich has done under the guise of The Forresters.The album ‘Skindeep’ is not absolutely awful but there is certainly not much to recommend it. Bautovich’s voice is non-descript at best and whilst the songs themselves demonstrate that he and his session band are least competent songwriters and musicians, there is absolutely nothing which warrants further investagtion. The fact that he recorded his previous album in the Memphis, in the middle of delta blues country, with his former group seems to have taught him little about the the heart and soul of blues and country. His own creation is lyrically glib and musically banal.It seems sad to say this, as this record does sound like a labour of love, being completely self-financed and independently relased. The press release (self-composed, presumably) promises harmonies which ‘often reach Byrdsian proportions’, so far, this critic has found nothing of the sort. In short, this album is an inferor attempt to producing something which was never such a great idea in the first place.
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