Damian Coen: Reviews

"Given how much music is now the aural equivalent of McDonald's, it's a treat to hear some honest, home-cooked Aussie songs driven by wit, sincerity and good musicianship. Coen's natural domain is acoustic blues. He steps outside the form, but not the spirit, with lyrics that provide deft little observations, bluff candour and incitement to consume alcohol. Coen's harmonica careers into the foreground between vocal duties, surrounded by the likes of Damon Davies's bluesy guitar, Adam Barnard's earthy percussion and the effervescent Marcus Holden's strings."

"Mixing up dixieland, early jazz, jugband, ragtime, blues, roots and humor, this upbeat, punchy album appeals to the fun-loving country soul in everyone. Best known for his old-time blues harmonica playing, Damian has concocted quite the sassy brew adding the tuba, jug, and washboard to his folky blues get-up, with hints of Tom Waits, Norton Buffalo, John Hammond, Django Reindardt, and Woody Guthrie. A tickling album that can stick it to the blues ache when it needs to."

"You get some ragtime, some simple sweet blues, some cheeky self-effacing moments, a real gumbo ride around the byways of whatever it is the term roots is supposed to embrace, with a gentle honesty and understated integrity." Read Full Review

"Diverse influences converge with Coen's own take on the world to produce an album that combines blues, gospel, hillbilly and ballads into a wonderful musical journey through modern roots music." Read Full Review

"What a great collection of country blues, and bluesy, folky ballads...real Australian songs - fresh and relevant" Read Full Review

"There are as many "Australian" sounds as there are American, English and Irish, whether in rock, pop, blues or folk, so if you're looking for a "roots" album with a distinctively Australian sound, Six Lane Highway is as good a place as any to start, and like every other "Australian" sound, it inevitably draws on elements of all three of those other traditions mentioned above. The trick is in synthesizing those elements into something that allows your own voice, steeped in the experience of living in this place at this time.

Damian Coen manages to do just that, whether he's taking you through an urban country stroll through love at the Bald Faced Stag in "Little Italy", or a swing blues meets gospel spiritual saunter with Livin' In The Present. It's more than the place or "people"; references - who hasn't experienced the frustrations of playing original band competing with "cover bands that play The Stones / Beatles bands and Elvis clones"? in Coen's gloriously jugband That's The Only Stuff We Play - there's just something about the way that synthesis of American roots and English / Irish folk comes out when it's made here that gives it an unmistakably Australian edge.

That said of course, it's obvious Coen is working in a part of the paddock that is all but ignored by both the mainstream and alternative in Australian music. The point, for Coen, is in the previously mentioned That's The Only Stuff We Play. Coen hasn't just come to the blues/ roots alt country thing. It's where his heart has lain since he was gigging around the country with the Mudsteppers, or doing the duo thing that saw him opening for American blues/roots artist like John Hammond.

So it's here if you want to pay the price of admission, with Coen ably abetted in pursuing his passion and muse by producer Damon Davies, who also adds various guitars and harmonies to Coen's lead vocals and harmonica, and a bevy of like minded local players. You get some ragtime, some simple sweet blues, some cheeky self-effacing moments, a real gumbo ride around the byways of whatever it is the term roots is supposed to embrace, with a gentle honesty and understated integrity." Return to Short Review

"Australian blues and roots music fans are celebrating the return to recording of one of the cream of the NSW blues scene, Damian Coen, with the release of Six Lane Highway.

True to form, Coen's addictive good-time music is matched with some astute political and social observations, as well as the more traditional blues ruminations on the ups and downs of daily life.

Coen's accomplices are a who's who of the Sydney acoustic blues and roots music scene, including guitarists Damon Davies and Chris O'Connor, fiddler Marcus Holden and keyboards whiz Donny Hopkins. Many are alumni of various incarnations of Mic Conway's legendary bands (O'Connor, Holden, tuba/jug blower Carolyn “Cazbo” Johns and Adam Barnard on drums and washboard).

It's a few years since Coen's friendly vocals and captivating blues harp have been the main featured on tape/record/CD. He was a stalwart of the renowned Mudsteppers jug band (with Davies) and politically outspoken classic blues duo Red Belly Blues (with O'Connor) in the late 1980s and `90s. He assisted Davies on his terrific Ride This Train album back in 1995, and O'Connor's 2003 release.

Coen spent time in the USA honing his blues skills with delta blues performer Paul Brasch (appearing on Brasch's 1998 Find My Way album on Burnside Records) before returning to Australia to resume his 18-year-plus musical symbiosis with the always entertaining Damon Davies.

Lyrically, Coen says, he has been influenced by “anyone who has had anything worthwhile to say since Woody Guthrie”, including Australian writers “such as Paul Kelly, Archie Roach and even Midnight Oil... Of course, prior to Guthrie, there had been plenty of musical cultures and roots musicians who have used music to express the deeply personal and the socio-political. So, while Guthrie may have reshaped white folk music in the US, the seminal black folk blues singers already had lots to say that was worthy of expressing (and of course, probably much of it was never recorded).”

Musical influences Coen points to include the great American jug bands of the 1920s and `30s, blues singers like Big Bill Broonzy, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson and Memphis Minnie, and the country blues harmonica greats, like Will Shade, Sonny Boy Williamson I and II and Sonny Terry. “More recent interpreters of this tradition have also been influential, such as Ry Cooder, Bonnie Rait, John Hammond, Phil Wiggins and Rory McLeod”, Coen adds.

These diverse influences converge with Coen's own take on the world to produce an album that combines blues, gospel, hillbilly and ballads into a wonderful musical journey through modern roots music.

The album's 14 songs were all written by Coen over the past 15 years. There are certainly some gems among them. “That's The Only Stuff We Play” is a good-time jug-band whinge about how pub capitalism is crushing the space for great live music in favour of lousy cover bands, karaoke and poker machines.

The jazzy “Sydney City Rag” pokes fun at the trials and tribulations of 21st century city life, with smog in our lungs and poop on our beaches, and our strange tendency to not only put up with it, but to celebrate it.

The environmental theme continues in the marvellous delta blues-style “I Heard the Sky Explode”, which assails the destruction of the forests, pollution and the arms trade.

“Grease on the Government” is an accurate, if a little defeatist, assessment of the lengths that governments, cops and the corporate media will go to stifle dissent. The song is inspired by the ordeal of Tim Anderson, who was framed for the 1978 Hilton Hotel bombing.

One song that I would have liked to hear reprised is “Tell Me How About It”, which appeared on a Red Belly Blues tape sometime in 1993. It dealt with the police killing of David Gundy and Aboriginal deaths in custody. In the light of recent events in Redfern, it would be as relevant as ever.

All in all, Six Lane Highway is a welcome addition to any activist's CD shelf. Coen is now based on the NSW south coast, but I'm sure, if the cause is right and you ask nicely, he might just play at the next benefit you're organising. He can be contacted via his web site at ." Return to Short Review

"Here is a fine new CD from the leader of The Mudsteppers. Damian has a nice folky voice, and plays very nice harp, but this isn't a "harmonica album". Also along to help out are former Mudsteppers, Damon Davies (guitar, slide, percussion and vocal harmonies), Chris O'Connor (acoustic guitar), and Adam Barnard (drums, washboard, percussion). Other "helpers" are Elizabeth Frencham (double bass, vocal harmonies), Marcus Holden (violin, mandolin, banjo-mandolin, strohviol, banjo-ukulele), Don Hopkins (piano), Carolyn "Cazzbo" Johns (tuba, jug, vocal harmonies), and Robert Maxwell Jones (bass vocal harmonies). As you would expect from that list, performances are first rate throughout - lots of interplay between the various instruments, and nice vocal harmonies (helped by Robert's big furniture-rattling bass voice).

The CD was produced by Damon Davies and recorded by Marcus Holden, and the sound is warm, clean, and "in your lounge room".

All the songs were written by Damian, and what a great collection of country blues, and bluesy, folky ballads. While true to the rootsy styles, they are real Australian songs - fresh and relevant, and while some of them are stories from Damian's life, I reckon everyone can relate to them.

Then there are love songs (Bald Faced Stag, The Moment You Arrived), songs about city life (Six Lane Highway, Sydney City Rag), gospelish songs (Livin' In The Present), and songs with a social conscience (Grease On The Government, Prison Dog). All the songs are thoughtful explorations of life, past, present and future. I particularly like the closer, Comin' Back; it's one of those lively simple songs that, having heard it a couple of times, you find yourself strumming and singing. It has some of the sweetest harp you'll hear, beautifully playing off Marcus' violin. Very nice indeed!

In fact this is a very nice CD all round." Return to Short Review