Dan Jordan

"THE TROUBLE WITH MONSTERS"

by: Pembrokeshire Online

The late John Gibbens, a former colleague of mine and the author of a guide to Bob Dylan’s music, The Nightingale’s Code, used to start talks on the master singer/songwriter by playing a Dylan instrumental.

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Slightly bonkers, one might say. But I think he was making the point that the essence of what Dylan was about could be heard in his music as much as in his words – particularly in its rhythm and its mood.

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Somehow this came to mind when I was listening to the final – instrumental – track on the new EP from Pembrokeshire musician Dan Jordan, The Trouble With Monsters.

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Death Valley is a cinematic Morricone-esque mix of melancholy and poignancy (co-written with pianist Gheorghe Simion) – dark and yet uplifting in the midst of bleakness. This seems to be what Dan Jordan is about; and when he adds his words and his singing on the vocal version of Death Valley, we are taken even further into the heart of a harsh world.

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Jordan’s voice refuses to be sweet or pretty – and is definitely not your friend. It comes from the Cave/Cohen/Dylan school of uncompromise, laden with doom, telling you the way things are, whether you like them or not.

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Perhaps in recognition of that, he employs the totally contrasting voice of Elena Rose to balance things out a little soundwise and to sharpen up the impact of his lyrics.

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These Kinda Things uses the two voices to good effect to create an elegaic lament for stuff going wrong, while On Your Mind has an almost folky sound – but very much from the dark end of the folk spectrum.

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Quicksilver is perhaps the most impressive track, illustrating how Jordan is not that interested in conventional approaches to song presentation. Here the song seems to become a journey, a musical and mysterious development that unfolds, taking you from A to Z rather than just circling around A and B.

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Jordan has something special. His songs are very much him and very much complete. They sound like they come naturally but they are no doubt the result of a lot of hard work as well as hard talent. And all of that deserves wider recognition.

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"THE TROUBLE WITH MONSTERS"

by: Welsh Connections

Dan Jordan (and his Warbirds) have carved out an Americymru niche for themselves in a low key and unobtrusive way - which is why some of you will be asking ‘who’ ? Well, if you like your music with a touch of Nick Cave, Tom Waits and/or Leonard Cohen with a pinch of Dylan (Bob, not Thomas) you really should check this guy out.

Gritty lyrics with even grittier delivery but with patches of disguised humour throughout. For those of you already familiar with him you’ll know what to expect - but do you ?

This new collection is familiar and, dare I say, comfortable in places but it’s also a further development of Dan’s songwriting style and delivery.

Always entertaining, sometimes challenging but never disappointing. Check him out.

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"ROAD TO RUIN"

by: Get The Chance

Dan Jordan and The Warbirds evade categorisation. They are poetry. They are music. They are outlaw country. They are moody blues. They are folk storytelling. They are heavy metal vocals. The only seminal thread that runs through their latest album, Road to Ruin, is main man Dan’s clear connection to the music of Bob Dylan. He may not readily admit to such an influence being a conscious thing, but it is apparent that his time spent with Dylan over the course of his first album has had a lasting effect. His vocal delivery may not be to everyone’s taste, but one should at least be able to appreciate the hard-felt poetry that emanates from it.

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Opening track Slow Burn may get off to a slow start but its first few moments of silence create a real sense of anticipation. A whirring cymbal then comes spinning into existence before being knocked sideways by the hard keys of a piano. It introduces the heavy beat which symbolises much of the album’s dark veneer, Jordan’s own smoky Dylan-esque vocals then coming in to add further shade. There is a sultry otherworldliness to the piano and electric guitar which gives it a certain intrigue and stops it descending into a black hole. The various mixing of genres, from the Latinized Country of Rider to the Metalized Blues of Run, have a similar effect, the poetic nature of Jordan’s lyrics also contributing to this sense of fascination which surrounds much of the album.

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Each track is greeted with surprise. Each offers something slightly different from the rest. Ain’t Got Nothin’ may have a classic Blues structure but Matts White and Taylor bring some wonderful organ and electric guitar respectively to give it an added dimension. The soft and delicate composition on Seven Deaths of You creates a beautifully light atmosphere which allows deeper access into Jordan’s poetry. There is a real slice of folk storytelling here, delivered rather nicely through a deep voice that contains the faint presence of delicacy and vulnerability. Sweet City Ruin manages to uncover this further in lines like “stumbling through the city like a spectre” and “all you want is for the world to know that you were here” even as they are hidden behind the up-tempo, western swing style music.

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There is a mythical quality to Elena which could be said to draw on folk tradition. The track that follows, Nightingale, certainly seems to suggest a strong folk influence upon Jordan’s work. His always gritty and grave delivery never allows for the same cadences that one might find among the typical folk singer however, meaning the loss of emotionality to some degree. What is lost here though is made up for in another unexpected musical addition, this time the introduction of pop elements followed by a sudden flurry of different instruments that take the album in a completely different direction. It means that, even as Jordan’s vocal starts to feel staid, there is enough originality to keep you listening right to the end.

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Final track This Land has No Name is definitely worth sticking around for. On its musical surface is a wild west evoking landscape, complete with tolling bell and front porch guitar. It is the country music of the outlaws, reclaiming their rural roots from the urbanisation of an earlier sound. Dig a little deeper into the lyrics, and you begin to see the parallels. Yet this song speaks not of a place across the pond but a land much closer to home. Those “structures… crooked… battered” are the stone houses dotted across the countryside. The “roofs mad