Album Review

Red Sky July – Shadowbirds

• 15th Sep 2014

Alt country trio Red Sky July return three years after their debut album with a beautiful collection of ten melodic and emotional songs. With great songwriting, lovely local harmonies and some fine guitar melodies, the music is rich and features several memorable pop hooks.

Shelly Poole (Alisha’s Attic) and her husband Ally McErlaine (Texas) formed the band with former model Charity Hair (The Alice Band). The trio’s individual talents are well known and they have come to work together perfectly, recording this album in just a week. The production is very clean and the vocals sound superb, with every instrument also clear in the mix.

The outstanding acoustic track Losing You has a real Eagles vibe with lovely harmonies and some fine guitar work. The country pop feel to the track gives it real emotional depth and the theme of loss comes through very strongly. The slow closer Solitary Woman is another highlight, the lovely vocals backed by a pedal steel guitar in a track that raises goosebumps, a slow drum beat sitting behind the vocals as punctuation.

Slower song Renegade initially sees minimal instrumental backing for the vocals, which are quite perfect. Then the instrumental break adds a lot to a fine track. Love song Made For Each Other is bright and sweet as honey. New Morning Light and the upbeat Warm My Heart are perhaps the most country sounding tracks, and the gentle lilting vocals work very well. A little variety comes with Any Day Now, which features singer songwriter Jack Savoretti on vocals and is basically a good pop duet.

Red Sky July brings three very talented musicians together into a band that has developed a gorgeous alt country/ country pop sound. Their songs are well put together and the vocal harmonies really stand out on pretty much every track. Ally McErlaine’s guitar licks add a lot to the overall effect too, giving bite when needed. Shadowbirds is a very good album that showcases three fine musicians’ skills perfectly.

Venue: Shadowbirds
Support Band: Absolute