Welcome to The Sydney Morning Herald
By Bernard Zuel
January 2, 2006
Broken hearts and open highways; Hammond organ and twangy guitars.
Artist
Perry Keyes
Genre
Rock
Label
Laughing Outlaw Records
If the idea of an impassioned male singer working in an area framed by husky soul, storytelling country-rock and detail-rich post-Dylan rock makes you yearn for a house beat or rap-metal (or, indeed, a revolver), move on now, there’s nothing for you here. Sydney taxi driver Perry Keyes lives in the musical house built by the likes of John Prine, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and the young Richard Clapton – and replicated by scores of their acolytes, such as Any Trouble, Ryan Adams, the early Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, John Dowler of the Zimmermen and fellow Sydneysider Bernie Hayes.That’s the framework: a style that teeters on cliches of rugged lives, broken hearts and open highways as much as Hammond organ and twangy guitars. Keyes isn’t afraid to use them all. But he does it with heart as well as skill, capturing stories of this city (from Fairfield girls and ‘‘cockroaches and cigarettes’’ under the railway steps to the sun setting on St Mary’s) and delivering them with enough conviction to distract you from the familiarity of the form.
Copyright © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald