Marcus Bonfanti: What Good Am I To You?
Marcus Bonfanti: What Good Am I To You?
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Tuesday, 08, Dec 2009 01:51
P3 Music, out now.
What's it all about?
How a man who was born in North London, who perfected his craft in Liverpool (at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, no less), and shaped his musical identity touring Newcastle ended up sounding more American than cola and freedom fries is a true puzzle. All 12 of these songs conjure images of dust clouds and cowboy hats, not the Albert Dock and tube strikes.
Who's it by?
The "love child of Tom Waitts and Van Morrison" - or so he's apparently been told. What Good Am I To You? is the second album from Marcus Bonfanti, a British blues singer (with a "dangerously Italian" father) and self-taught guitarist. His first album Hard Times was released last December and attracted some minor attention amongst the likes of Paul Jones on his BBC 2's Live Sessions show.
As an example...
"I'll walk out of your own front door/You don't need to love me anymore." - Sweet Louise
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys?
Well, it's certainly unlikely that Marcus Bonfanti would get much attention in America, as they're not exactly short on blues-folk-country singers of their own. Come to think of it, there's not exactly a massive shortage of them this side of the ocean, either.
So is it any good?
Well, I'm afraid it's not good enough to be compared to Tom Waitts or Van Morrison, and I'm curious to know who these mysterious critics are who have done so, as I couldn't find much evidence of them. Then again, very few artists are on a par with these legends, so perhaps it's a bit unfair to hold this up as a serious failing in Bonfanti's music.
Bonfanti has mastered the skill of gruff blues vocal delivery brilliantly, and has no shortage of genre-appropriate lyrics and images to throw around. In theory, this album ticks all the correct boxes, and is difficult to fault.
But even though there is absolutely nothing wrong with this album, it's hard to find much which is actually outstanding, either.
The guitar work, particularly on instrumental tracks like Tweed Blazer is definitely impressive - even more so as he is said to be entirely self-taught, and songs like the memorable title track prove Bonfanti is not without his songwriting cap. His vocal performance is stirring, and his lyrics vivid. None of the songs are clichéd, except on possibly the almost Country and Western Goin' Down. So why am I struggling so hard to enjoy listening to this album?
It could be because there's absolutely nothing I haven't heard before - and very little that I haven't heard done considerably better. The truth is, I'm not sure who would see any point in owning a copy of this album. Anyone who likes blues-folk will surely already have a massive stack of albums by Van Morrison and the like, next to which What Good Am I To You? is likely to lie untouched, a pale copy of bigger artists. And anyone who isn't a fan of the genre's pillars is certainly not going to be won around by a mediocre version of them.
Another problem is that none of the songs are very memorable, except for snippets of the title track. Even after many, many listens, it's hard to remember much of what you've just heard, which makes it hard to be enthused about whipping it out again for another listen anytime soon.
The tender closing track Sweet Louise is the easy-to-miss gem of the collection, and that seems to be because Bonfanti stops growling on this song as though he thinks he's Van Morrison or Elvis, and allows us to expect a little less (or at least expect something a little different) and accept him for what he is. Which is an actually-quite-decent musician.
It's not that there's anything horrifically awful about this album, and I'm sure others will have more patience than I do. But there are many, many blues guitar folk singer-songwriters clogging up the music industry already. To seriously gather any kind of a following, Bonfanti needs something very, very special - which might have, but sadly, on What Good Am I To You? there are only narrow, occasional glimpses of it. This album is likely to be - perhaps unfortunately - gathering little more than copious amounts of dust.
6/10
Louise McCudden