Deeper South is Shane Howard’s latest album and a beautifully recorded, crowd-funded affair. This album is a high water mark for Howard, combining poetry, blues, country, celtic and folk with rich acoustic textures. It’s apparent from the first few bars of the opening, title track that something special is happening. It features jazzy rhythms, powerfully strummed guitars and intricate instrumental fills. Throughout the album the lyrics are poetic, deep, loaded with social commentary and also more personal thoughts on love and grief. The power of the music is a force of its own, drawing you right into the songs. The second track ‘Everything is Rusted’ could have been a rant on the absence of leadership in our world, with its references to spin doctors, climate-change deniers, rust, decomposition and disease, but Howard’s delivery and the jazzy and bluesy interplay of guitar and mandolin keep this from being depressing.

Howard cut this album in his living room with stunning support from John Hudson on guitar, dobro and mandolin and Ewen Barker on fiddle and mandolin while assorted acoustic bass, cello, flute and bouzouki were added later. During rehearsals the band would play each song for hours, allowing things to emerge which must have made for some interesting production decisions. Certainly the instrumental virtuosity here makes this a contender for one of the year’s best. The performances are intense and extended affairs often featuring multiple instrument breaks within each song. Some tracks are more celtic in sound and show the band shifting gears effortlessly before leading into gentler songs such as ‘The Ghost of Love’. Album closer ‘In the Melancholic Long Run’ is the most typical Howard song here and takes us back to his first post-Goanna solo album Back to the Track – a very fine way to go out.

Paul Barr