TRACEY BUNN – BY THE WAYSIDE

Tracey Bunn is a Darwin native, a singer-songwriter best known for her work with the Toe-Sucking Cowgirls. Recorded in Nashville by label-mate (and kindred spirit) Anne McCue, her first solo album is lean, direct, and no-nonsense, testament perhaps to twenty hard-scrabble years on the road.  A blend of a rootsy rock, country swing, and 60’s-flavoured guitar pop, the songs express mixed feelings of desire, regret, and wanderlust, leavened with a healthy dollop of good humour. Melancholy Mood is old-timey and infectiously bittersweet, a big bouquet of melody floating on a one-two, one-two rhythm. On Shutup and Let Me Breathe, Bunn seems to be channelling Patsy Cline and Martha Wainwright as the song builds to a big chorus, her voice hitting high swooping notes with a thrilling vibrato. “We had a love that set the night on fire,” she sings on Running, a light-footed paean to bad romance, “Tight as a drum as strong as fencing wire.” Anne McCue’s arrangements are spare, defined by characteristically strong guitar work and quirky little touches like the guiro and shaker on Running.
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