Album Details

• Artist: Greg MacPherson Band
• Album: Mr. Invitation
• Label: Smallman
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: iamparadox on 2010-05-26

Media

It's always great to grab the latest release from your favorite artist. And every once in awhile, like discovering a $20 bill in your pocket, you get lucky and surprised by discovering a new record that you were not expecting. This will probably be the reaction most listeners will have when encountering Mr. Invitation, the newest project from Greg Macpherson.

A solo song writer and performer from Winnipeg, Canada, Greg's been around much longer than most fans realize. Mr. Invitation is the first new material in five years from the independent artist. The record's first listen comes across as part Bob Schneider, part Tom Petty. It starts off powerful, gets intense, then mellows out and becomes just as intimate as it was intense. And yes, it's a great album to drink to!

"First Class" kicks off as a bitter sweet story, describing the adventures of an excursion in another country. Sucking you in immediately, guitars scream before giving way to a most powerful refrain: "I don't like the people and I don't like the wine, but I do like a woman with a mind of her own." Many listeners will resonate with "Outer Edge", the second cut, as Macpherson confesses " I ain't got no Jesus, so I don't know who I'm talking to." He shows off both his sincerity and humor with lines like, "I'm a bored little man with a lot to lose someday Ill face that fact but not right now." And also "Maybe I've been touched by a higher calling but who gives a damn."

The lyrics, imagery, and yearnings expressed throughout Mr. Invitation are what make it stand out from being just another guitar driven record. The title track has a dark, yet comforting verse: nothings wrong here nothings right come home with me. You can sense the rawness, the pain, and the hope that all hit close to home in songs like "Backflow": "Everybody knows, we're too afraid to say it ourselves", and "My life's a Friday night in the summer time and I'm dressed all right." And on the final song "Visitor", "you don't know you'll turn out to be, until you get there."

Throughout the work, and even the album cover itself (a wide open road), the message is clear: searching can be a good thing. The record is both calming and expanseful. These are the type of songs that are hard to quit listening to. You could be in for a surprise, check those pockets!

User Reviews and Comments