Artist – Motel Sundown
Single – Midnight Blue
Released – 1st November 2023
Reviewer – John Jenkins, Liverpool Acoustic
There can’t be many Local Band music lovers that haven’t fallen under the spell of Motel Sundown these days.
Being a fan of Karen Turley myself and loving her 2017 EP Like We Used To despite the fact she called me Denis Parkinson at a West Kirby Live event around that time, I forgave her and was curious to hear she had hooked up with two other singers/musicians Naomi Campbell and Robert Johnson (no not that one!) and formed a band called Motel Sundown’
Their first release, a song called Chicago, which I played endlessly on my Garden Party Radio Show, was, and still is, a classic tune. Since then they’ve worked hard and captured the imagination of Americana music lovers across the whole UK.
Their 2022 debut album If You Were Listening was released to great reviews and people were obviously listening (20,000 streams alone) as prestigious gigs of late have followed that include the British Country Music Festival, and Black Deer Festival alongside Bonnie Raitt, The Pretenders and Allison Russell after winning a slot via public vote through the Black Deer Emerging Competition.
The band have played support slots for Americana artists such as The Hanging Stars, Ashley Campbell, The Chapin Sisters and more recently US Grammy nominated artist Courtney Marie Andrews.
So what next? Well, the first track of a few new releases comes out in early November, and is called Midnight Blue.
And just when you think you’ve got to know how a band sounds and what to expect you get completely thrown off guard by something unexpected sound-wise.
Here we are thrown completely into a ‘Dusty in Memphis’ world with absolutely gorgeous harmonies that sound like a cross between ‘The Carpenters’ and “The Stylistics” but obviously ‘Motel Sundown’ and their trademark harmonic sound.
‘Jerry Wexler/Arif Mardin/Tom Dowd ‘who produced Dusty’s trailblazing album would have killed for this song.
At under 2 minutes 40 seconds, it makes you want to press the repeat button straight away.
I wish ‘Amy Chalmers’ had been involved to put some strings on this, not that it lacks anything honestly, but I know when a marriage is a good one and that would have been the ultimate marriage.
How many classics can one band have though? Well, ‘Motel Sundown’ seem to be churning them out. It’s a great song and sound. Highly recommended.
John Jenkins
Review © 2023 John Jenkins, Liverpool Acoustic