Brisbane still gets branded ‘Australia’s biggest country town’ by the too-urbane snobs, however this increasingly inaccurate critique does nothing to detract from the city’s rich singer/songwriter crop (last I heard, Ben Salter was God). His CV already including work with Magoo and a South By Southwest slot in 2008, Chris Pickering is something of a quiet achiever, crafting well-thought, lyrical songs that manage to shake off the ‘alt-country’ tag despite employing such traditional accessories as banjo and lap steel. Organic down to every strummed/picked guitar pattern, Excuses Excuses is an impressively solid record full of unassuming gems like Ruby Ruby, Broken Wing and Save Your Breath. Pickering’s dulcet voice is instantly reminiscent of Josh Rouse – especially on the strolling Little Finger and Honey – and while he yet has to write his own Comeback, he already possesses melodic sunshine in spades. Ballads The Humming Song and You Don’t Know (both with Chloe Turner on harmony vocals) feel like a logical progression of the Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris songbook; on the louder scale, the John Lennon-esque Fit To Print, powered by winning blues-rock riffage, shifts through intricate chord progressions before zooming into a prime-grade psychedelic wigout of an outro. The sonorous, brass-laden If I Came Back From A War ends the album on a sombre note and the three bonus tracks – Wonders, All Or Nothing and Nobody – have left me wondering why they didn’t make the final cut despite their obvious strength. Our own Jeff Tweedy in the making? Quite possibly so.

DENIS SEMCHENKO

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