17 Jan 2020

ALBUM PREVIEW: Tattletale Saints, Dancing Under the Dogwoods

From RNZ Music, 10:00 am on 17 January 2020

RNZ Music is excited to share this exclusive preview of the new album from NZ-born, Nashville-based Americana duo, the Tattletale Saints. Dancing Under the Dogwoods is out Friday, January 24.

The Tattletale Saints’ story is somewhat complex. Cy Winstanley and Vanessa McGowan started out as high school bandmates in Auckland, then reconnected on Myspace while McGowan was studying Jazz bass in Las Vegas and Winstanley was in London.

Eventually reuniting back home in New Zealand, the pair became romantically and musically involved, then spent time in London where they started Tattletale Saints.

The relationship didn’t last, but they carried on making music together. After releasing their debut album, the Tattletale Saints relocated to Nashville, where they’re both working musicians, playing with a variety of artists in the city’s vibrant Country scene. 

Their third album Dancing Under the Dogwoods shows the effect that life in Tennessee has had on the pair. From the opening notes, the Country influences are front and centre.

The title track sounds like a Cajun take on Steve Earle’s classic ‘Galway Girl’. It shows Winstanley’s ability to write a tune that couples in checked shirts could whirl each other around to in some smoke-filled bar.

Country music and, by extension Americana, has a long history of songs about “traditional American values”, often extolling the virtues of the loving embrace of family. Equally as storied, is the tradition of songs that fly in the face of those values.

‘D.I.N.K’ (Double Income No Kiddies) is one of the latter. A gentle, almost lullaby-esque song, it reflects the choice to reject the societal pressure to have children and lists all the things a couple can do without them, including (for some reason) going to Disneyland on a whim.

The overall feel of Dancing Under The Dogwoods is one of gentleness. Sonically, there’s not a hard edge to be found on the whole album.

There’s a quiet, tenderness to songs like ‘Honest Work’ and ‘Here at Last”. Winstanley and McGowan’s voices blend beautifully when they sing together, resulting in the kind of intimate feel that’s only achieved when two singers have been close for years.

And the duo’s breathy vocals are perfectly complemented by the mostly acoustic arrangements.

Even the more high-energy tracks on the album have a rounded, smooth sound to them. The more percussive instruments such as drums and mandolins drive the rhythm of the songs but without being the most obvious instrument in the mix. 

The bluegrass tinged ‘A Man Ain’t Working’ is a prime example. On a track that includes banjo, guitar and Mandolin, instruments that usually fight for your attention, everything sits very comfortably behind Winstanley’s voice.

It’s in the more upbeat and vigorous parts of this album that the Tattletale Saints excel. The duetting mandolin and guitar riff on ‘Bobby Where Did You Learn to Dance’ is almost as playful as the lyrics about the carefree, energetic dancing of blind man. 

One aspect of being a musician in America right now is that it’s almost entirely impossible, as an observant and creative person, to be unaffected by the country’s political climate. And it seems that Kiwi expats are no exception.

Luckily the Tattletale Saint’s approach on ‘One and the Same’ is less on-the-nose than some of their contemporaries. With undulating organ and slide guitar, ‘One and the Same’ has the slow groove of a 1970s AM country radio hit and a lyrical plea for unity and togetherness that wouldn’t have been out of place in the political turmoil of the late 1960s. 

Dancing Under The Dogwoods is a beautifully crafted and well-polished album. Winstanley and McGowan have moved back towards the primarily acoustic sound of their debut album How Red is the Blood, but have varied the arrangements enough to make each song stand out from the others.

It’s clear that being immersed in the Nashville music community has had an impact. Influences ranging from Cajun music and Bluegrass to 60s and 70s Folk Rock are easy to spot here and Winstanley’s already impressive songwriting is all the richer for it.

Dancing Under the Dogwoods is out Friday, January 24.

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