Dave Wright & The Midnight Ramblers

If the shirt fits then maybe you should wear that shirt. After years of playing his beloved Melbourne town to a committed bunch of followers in full barnstorming brass laden electric mode Turn Out the Lights sees Dave Wright and his core band in acoustic navy-bluegrass style and you know what? It works. It’s a different shirt for sure, but it looks good on him.

It works because the songs are still there no matter how Dave decides to play them. The same attack, the same concerns - the outsiders, drifters, the laid-off worker, the struggling farmer, the troubled family man out on the town when he knows he should be home. People that should know better but somehow don’t.

This music takes you down the Latrobe Valley as the power station shuts down, it takes you on the run along the Murray River, it takes you out on a railway gang, it takes you out on the town. It’s Dave’s world and it doesn’t matter if it’s blasting at electric volume or singing sweet harmony over a light mandolin riff. It’s come as you are informal, a knees-up in the pub or a sweet singalong around the kitchen table. If it’s an occasion it’s an informal one and you can wear what you want - Dave’s got his shirt picked out.

Mick Thomas

October 2019

https://linktr.ee/davewrightmusic