GARETH LIDDIARD – STRANGE TOURIST

The Drones are Australia’s most powerful musical voice of this millennium. Three albums in and it is frightening the consistency and brilliance they have show. So when singer/songwriter Gareth Liddiard steps out on his own, the anticipation would daunt a lesser man. Tellingly the cover of Liddiard’s first solo outing, Strange Tourist, shows him seated, back to camera, guitar in hand. It is not that he is shy, it is just that his words have always painted such vivid pictures, his face is lost behind his stories. Strange Tourist further confirms that Liddiard has a novel or two in his future, as he not only strips away his band mates but accompanies himself with the sparsest of guitar lines for most of the album. From the modern homemade terrorist to France in 1941, from the jealous girlfriend to the Tasmanian bush; Liddiard’s tales are not bound by time nor place. Yet they share a visceral nature and intimate truth that is breath-taking. It is not too early to declare Liddiard a living national treasure.

****