Ceol Agus Gra [LP]

From the banks of the River Mersey to the forest outside Paris, the atypical trajectory of Peter Deaves brings you Ceol Agus Grá ("Music and love in Gaelic), his first album. The singer-songwriter from Liverpool celebrates "old forms of life" and the beauty of nostalgia illuminated by abundant live instrumentation (lapsteel, double bass, mandolins, banjos, flugelhorns, flutes, etc.) and the analog warmth of tube amps.Close to the broad and deep tones of Townes Van Zandt and Ricky Nelson, the voice of Peter Deaves is a common thread of an album where shadows of the Beatles ("Nowhere Boy"), Leonard Cohen and Elliott Smith also creep in ("Quarter Past"). Hat- tips also to Johnny Cash ("The Long Green River") and Neutral Milk Hotel and Radiohead in the brilliant Britpop compression of "Gasoline", Blaze Foley's longing fingerpicking ("Liverpool") as well as the celebratory raucousness of the Pogues (Bury Me Under The Mersey").