Paul Lush – devizine.com

Ever considered Jolene might’ve been an innocent victim of circumstance? Dolly’s husband was obsessed with her, talked about her in his sleep. But there’s no evidence in the song to suggest she enacted, nothing to say she consciously encouraged it or made the first move. Dolly persecuted her, could’ve been jealously. There’re two sides to every story and we never hear Jolene’s.

Sounds rather conservative to me, Dolly blames anyone but herself. Rather, Araluen’s song In the Arms of Another, offers a liberal angle on a similar premise. The singer admits and regrets her part in pushing him into the arms of another, by not seeing the significance of those tell-tale signs.

Arguably, its notion is more provocative than Jolene, but it’s certainly the most poignant tune on this captivating album, And There it is, released last month. Araluen being the project of Australian-born, (hence the name,) but resident in the UK, Paul Lush, known for his contributions with Rockingbirds singer Alan Tyler and Danny And The Champions Of The World. With a repute on the UK Americana circuit, guitarist and award-winning songwriter, Paul, has been plying his trade as a fleet-fingered gun for hire and now sets up his own project.

“Araluen is the vehicle that I use to record my songs,” explained Paul. “It’s an idea more than anything, that allows me to use whoever I want without having to stick to a set band line-up. I’ve written and recorded a lot of songs but have never done anything with them. So, once I started this project, it was with the idea to finally release something – get it out there.”

Occasionally here, the sound slips skilfully into folk-rock, and there’s an electric slide guitar instrumental decidedly rock, but for the bulk, it’s uplifting country, graced by the alluring vocals of Angela Gannon from Magic Numbers. Also important to note this flows between changing styles with acute precision, rather than jumps in and out of styles.

Maybe my mum’s insistence we listened to her Tammy Wynette cassette in the car as kids, prepped me for my newfound affection for country, projected within our local circuit, our Tammy, Quin, Jamie R Hawkins and Dean Czerwionka’s invitations to attend his Americana club nights, but I must say, I actually prefer the string-bending country ballards on And There it is more than the rock ones; or is it an age thing?!

I could speculate till the cows come home, but it’s likely the style suits Angela’s voice more. It is, by its very essence, hypnotically divine, and amatory too, in a kind of chequered shirts with tassels and Daisy Dukes fashion. Virtually all romantically themed in small-town matters and secrecy, I found myself drifting into its gorgeous, effectively unpretentious narratives, as thirteen of them roll off the ears like waves on a tropical ocean.

Such is the alluring vocals, my mind contemplated the classic Simpsons episode, where Homer is near-tempted by the advances of country singer Lurleen Lumpkin, incidentally voiced by actress and singer Beverly D’Angelo, who as well as being Ellen Griswold in the National Lampoon’s Vacation films, was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role as Patsy Cline in Coal Miner’s Daughter, so it’s a fair credit.

“I’d admired Ange’s vocals for a long time, so one night while we were talking over a drink I asked if she was interested in singing on my new album,” Paul elucidated. “We went through the songs a couple of times and then recorded them. She blew me away. I had never heard her sing like that. This was the first time I’d heard her sing as the main featured vocalist for a whole album and she’s fantastic.”

And she certainly is. Lush by name, Paul has created a cross-bred masterpiece here to appease both country aficionados and those merely window-shopping into the genre via rock n roll avenue. This is a keeper.