Duke Garwood – Garden of Ashes – Album Review by Killian Laher

Duke Garwood is a bluesy guitarist who has lately been a serial collaborator with Mark Lanegan. Garden of Ashes is his sixth album, and anyone familiar with 2015’s Heavy Love will know what to expect here: an album of vague, smoky folk-rock. Opening track Coldblooded sets the tone, a cool slab of loose-limbed dark blues that bobs along agreeably for three minutes or so before abruptly petering out. What follows is in a similar mode, and tracks like Sonny Boogie and Days Gone Old are strong but don’t really hold the attention and don’t make much impression. Towards the end, Hard Dreams features a fetching growl from Garwood, but there’s a ‘sameness’ to this album which by the time penultimate track Sleep arrives… well, you get the idea.

Although there’s little variety here, Garwood conjures up a decent, dark brew of bluesy folk which appears to pay little attention to what’s currently going on in music. It’s pleasant but ultimately not very memorable.

Track List:

1. Coldblooded
2. Sonny Boogie
3. Blue
4. Days Gone Old
5. Sing to the Sky
6. Garden of Ashes
7. Heat Us Down
8. Hard Dreams
9. Move On Softly
10. Sleep
11. Coldblooded The Return

Coldblooded