These guys are clever, John Edgar Voe isn’t a bloke, it’s a band. Led by Martin J Corrigan, the band also features one Robyn G Shiels and members of Alloy Mental.
John Edgar Voe’s sound is definitely country tinged, the first track, ‘Highwayman’ has nice use of lap steel, Corrigan though, refers to it as Fermanicana. Clever. Americana from Fermanagh, which is exactly what it is.
‘Highwayman’ has echoes of Johnny Cash, which is never a bad thing but pronounication of some of the lyrics, region, drug, make this distinctly JEV. ‘The Conscript’ uses clever lyrics to build the story of our hero. The mid tempo track features laid back vocals as we hear the pain in the singers immaculately delivered vocals. This almost has an anthemic feel with an uplifting positive chorus. I really like this track.
The old school Americana feel is back for ‘Letter to Joanna’, a simple love song which as the track goes on, features some nice gritty guitar. The four track E.P. ends with ‘Welded’ another uptempo track which makes the most of the vocal harmonies at the chorus. It immediately makes the song immediately contagious.
This E.P. is a great introduction to the band. Western Notes is out on June 24th which an album due for release in early 2012.