Trial and Error - Gaz Brookfield
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- lazarus
- Location: Kingdom of Wessex
- Posts: 4335
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Gaz Brookfield Swindon, Wiltshire
Review Rating
Posted Sat 5 Mar 2011 13:30 by lazarus.
It seems that I have been writing about Gaz’s music for a long time now, but then he has trodden an intriguing musical path meaning that there was always something new and interesting to be had from his creative output. Moving from tongue in cheek, young punk to slick pop rocker and now having taken the plunge to leave the safety net of the full band - the result of this evolution is, surprisingly, a nu-folk troubadour.
It’s difficult in the current climate to stand out as yet another guy with an acoustic guitar, even if you do use it as a drum from time to time, they do seem to be cropping up in droves theses days, but Gaz falls back on the things that have always got him through - force of personality, self-deprecating humour, charm and more importantly great songs. Planting his feet firmly in the territory occupied by the likes of Frank Turner, Billy Bragg and occasionally, whether consciously or not, some of the more traditional folk sources, his songs are built from wonderfully personable and often very personal narratives. They also often have hidden resonances that don’t always come to light on the first hearing.
On Man of Means, when he is delivering a lilting ballad about how he just manages to scrape through life, he’s actually sending honest, heart on the sleeve declarations to those closest to him. It’s this honesty that flavours the nature of what he does, whether it’s the self-analysis of the emotive Truth or the fun poking of Hell or High Water and it’s realities of a life on the road, or in this case a life in a lay-by waiting for the tow truck to rescue you.
But it’s not just people who get honoured in his songs, there is an obvious love of the landscape around him, from the familiarity of his Swindon hometown, the rolling hills of Wiltshire and even “a pub in central Bristol where he’d rather sink a beer” There is also room for some of the bigger issues of the day to be ripped open from the hypocrisy of those in political office to Diet of Banality’s swipe at the crass end of the music industry.
In a world that seems governed by the cool and the fashionable, the self-aggrandising and commercially driven, it’s refreshing to have people like Gaz Brookfield who are brave enough to lay bare their thoughts and feelings and do so in a stripped down yet infectious and immensely listenable way.
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