Guy Wishart – Where the Water Runs Through: Album Review

Guy Wishart’s fifth solo album is soothing acoustic Folk Pop which simmers and quietly fires up at times with a love that burns. The Greenwood Mac Folk Blues.

Where the Water Runs Through is a baker’s dozen of songs and the title track is a folk blues with tasty acoustic guitar phrases and a James Jamerson-styled personified bass which gives the tune it’s rhythmic pull.

If I could do better/ I’m not sure that I would. Reminiscing and regret with the cadences of older Roots Country. Darlene Te Young provides nice harmony. The cover is a half-shot of Wishart’s daughter, with a shoulder covered in flower tattoos.

Wishart has been writing and recording since the mid-Eighties in New Zealand. He picked up Most Promising Male Vocalist and Songwriter awards in that first period. The most recent accolade was the 2017 Tui Folk Album of the Year for West by North.

Thirty years on life’s highway includes living in Australia and the UK and resurfacing periodically into the musical realm. Currently with his partner, they curate and promote musicians who often fly under the radar too, in the boutique art gallery venue out in the wild west of Kumeu. This involves battling and trying to appease the Weather Gods of the current times as flood waters run through.

Wishart has stated that songs were worked up by the loose band ensemble and would change course and tone several times until their destination was reached.

The line-up is completed with Vernon Rive bass and keyboards, Michael Te Young drums, Andrew Horst bass, Glenn Campbell acoustic guitars and Peter Diprose electric guitars.

Just Around the Bend is a soft, pastoral Folk song of rivers and place, the Kaipara in particular. Fragile piano chimes and a busy bass guitar.

Kick It on Down is a story rooted in Westie country. There’s a car doing burnouts near the railroad track/ She wants to send a message/ Wants to kick your arse.

The phrase heart like steel links it the Country Blues of Charley Patton. Especially so in that the rhythm picks up into a little dance two-step. With the addition of electric slide guitar and heartfelt singing it touches on the blue-eyed Soul of Charlie Rich and his Sun Records days.

Hold Me to Your Fire. Acoustic guitars flow peacefully, and melodic higher-register vocals float free. Percussion resembles Eastern tablas.

Someday Soon is stripped back minimalist Folk as the singer reflect on a female muse.

A little more Rock’n’roll is Holy Bullets of Love. The melody is off-kilter Folk, and the singer phrases a little like Lou Reed. So, this is the Velvet Underground drone style of Rock’n’roll, and that seminal band started out as folkies with their early demos.

Lighten Up catches the ears and the hips immediately, as buoyant melodic hooks conceal a darker heart and black clouds. A Country Gospel tone with piano and chiming guitars achieving lift-off.

I like the stark nature of Don’t Know Why. My mother was a doctor/ My father was too/ But I could not do the things they could. Drawing from the writers deep well of experience, as the person on the album cover is addressed too. When Jesus is mentioned, the sombre melancholy tone reminds of no less a figure than Leonard Cohen.

Beneath the Waves closes the album and the nurturing element is back on the longest track on the album. We are dreaming/ Brother Sun/ Sister Moon. Haunting and peaceful.

Guy Wishart has continued on from his last award-winning album with Where the Water Runs Through.

Rev Orange Peel

The album can be found at Rattle – Where the water runs through