Red Dirt Skinners

The Red Dirt Skinners – Rob & Sarah Skinner -forged some success here in blighty with their folk/jazz/Americana/roots tinged music, Sarah being nominated & winning a British Blues Awards ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ award for her Sax playing and a scad of other nominations in Americana and Roots awards, but Blighty didn’t treat them particularly well and they emigrated to rural Ontario four years back.

This is the second album they have produced since the move, and it shows just how right it was for them to make the change.
Everything about their music has sharpened and the album is brimming over with confidence and the exultation of being able to make their music in an environment that they obviously love and where they have ditched so many of the pressures of modern day Britain.
Their sound is rockier, greater power in the drums especially, and their upbeat and positive approach gives even dark subjects as Homelessness, dementia, abuse, narcissism a ‘light in the darkness’ feeling.

There is an almost Floyd like feeling to some of their music – they won many plaudits for a remarkable version of ‘Comfortably Numb’ from their last album ‘Under Utopian Skies’ – but you never get the sense of listening to anyone other than the Red Dirt Skinners.

Of course, one develops favourite tracks but after many listens to the album I can definitely say that there isn’t a weak number or any ‘filler’. From the kick off with ‘Your Butterfly’ they are creating multi-layered songs with great harmonies. Sarah’s sax solos are more confident and soaring than before, Rob’s guitar playing is superb without taking over (he also plays drums and bass) and the keys from both of them give real texture to the music.

The singles ‘Brighter Days Ahead’ and ‘Wolf In The Woods’ are strong and complex. ‘Brighter Days Ahead’ is uplifting and has a sense of joy and confidence about it while ‘Wolf In The Woods’ is dark and lays down a very upsetting scene of narcistic abuse.

The track that both intrigued me and tugged at my heart is ‘The Lady’ – a song to the lonely ladies that we see all around us, features a great solo from Sarah and terrific vocal from Rob. ‘Perfect Like You’ is chilling and feels like an incredibly fragile glass sculpture held by a sociopath.

The ten tracks are all very individual, all have unique characteristics and yet it all hangs together as an album and all very definitely Red Dirt Skinners.