Skakes by Emlyn Johnson

“Skakes” is the latest offering from Federal Australian songsayer Emlyn Johnson. Across “Skakes” 6 banging folk-country waltzes Johnson explores dream scenarios, trams and trains, the West Coast of Australia and the East. Nostalgic and pretty, “Skakes” is somewhat of a departure from the wonkiness of his last album “Morning Venom”.
‘I wanted to make an album you could listen to hungover on a Sunday and it’d be kind of comforting,’ he says.
Electric piano, guitars, and steel-string acoustic appear throughout, while elegant slide guitar is provided on tracks 3 and 4 by Edo Ekic (Grievous Bodily Calm).
Home-recorded in various tiled kitchens and front-lounges, “Skakes” was mixed by Sean Gorman (Salary) and mastered by Joe Ryan (Pond).
The 6 dreamy waltzes of “Skakes” are a toast to Australian landscapes, plants and animals, and vernacular.
Track one “Kulbardis Sing” describes the pre-dawn song of magpies on a summer’s night in Fremantle. Track two “That’s Not A Tram It’s A Train” jumps on a bike in the streets of Northcote and Fitzroy. Track three “Norfolk Pine” is back in the beaches of the West and is noteworthy for its use of the word ‘Boonta’ and the phrase ‘Bee-lipped bumrush adieu.’
Track four “Good Night Alexandra” yearns for people of the East from a party in the West. Track five “Skakes” begins at a cafe in Fremantle and jumps to the beach lagoons of the Northern Burbs of Wollongong, home of that odd creature the Natural Australian Skake. And final track, Tasman Sea, wraps it up in a Sandgroper’s lament - the sun is back to front in Sydney.
“Skakes” is an independent release and will be toured in a socially-distant fashion that respects border restrictions.