Oak Grove

Oak Grove


MUST YOU HAVE LOVE HANDLES BEFORE YOU HAVE A HANDLE ON LOVE?

Oak Grove/Self-Release

Truly Imaginative and Sparkling Country-Folk Singing and Songwriting.
Aha! The artists formerly known as PICKXEN have changed their moniker to the more user friendly Oak Grove, and mercifully their delightful version of Folky and Rootsy Americana has only changed for the better during the transition.

In my defense, if Laura Monk sang the menu from my local Chinese take-away I would still swoon and sigh with admiration; so hearing Laura, (and friends), creating these fabulous songs from across the Roots spectrum has been joy personified.

Opening track ‘Another You’ is a beautiful love song in the style of The Mavericks, or more pertinently Raul Malo’s solo works but I’m throwing in Tom Russell too, with Laura taking on the role of a young and lovelorn Nanci Griffith; who is the best interpreter of Russell’s songs.

That Mariachi ‘beat’ is a bit of a false dawn, as the mood takes an upturn as the band soon moves up to Laurel Canyon for the oddly titled ‘Cher Knee’; a song

which came about via a ‘Songwriters circle’ the couple attended and were sent the homework of writing a song titled Journey ...... do you see what they did there? ‘Cher Knee sounds like Journey! Well, it may not be Walt Whitman but the poetic way Ms Monk curls her vocal cords around her lover’s various body parts as Michael Garvey makes his guitar sing and dance, is poetry to me.


To this day I’m still staggered that songwriters can somehow find new ways to describe the various aspects of love ....... surely this is a finite subject? Apparently not; as John and Laura, like thousands before them and presumably thousands to come, manage to make ‘Lonesome & Blue’, ‘Letter in the Rain’ and ‘The Dance’ sound so deeply personal, yet accessible to you and me too ....... I know because ‘The Dance’ touched spots that haven’t been touched for years.


I mentioned the distinctive Laurel Canyon ‘sound’ earlier; which I think is fair; but John and Laura come from North Georgia, which may or may not account for the added ‘bite’ to the lyrics in Skylark and the bubbly, yet broken-hearted B.S. For Breakfast.

I love the way that Oak Grove wrap their cleverly written and narrated songs with a sweet and often Easy Listening’ tempo; but peel away that veneer and you regularly find engrossing and bewitching tales in the all encompassing shadows; which brings me to the difficult choice of Favorite Song; as ‘Cedars of Lebanon’ really does deserve your total concentration; but still sounds delightful as ‘background music’ and the other is the Countriest darn song here; ‘Sunset on The Roses’, which sounds as if it should have been sung by Patsy Cline or Kitty Wells; but wasn’t! Although John admits to writing the original draft after hearing a song called ‘Lonesome 7-7203’ by Hawkshaw Hawkins, who died in the plane crash alongside Patsy; so maybe I’m a better judge than I know. It really is a beautiful song and deserves it’s newly found accolade of RMHQ Favorite Song.
 As I regularly point out, one of the main reasons for creating The Rocking Magpie was to support and promote acts and songwriters like OAK GROVE. This couple (and regular cohort Michael Garvey) have talent by the bucketful; yet life, love, family and paying the mortgage means that they can’t load the station wagon and tour non-stop across the US of A and then foray into Europe during Festival Season; yet their truly imaginative and sparkling songwriting coupled to Laura Monk’s amazing voice means that they still deserve a wider audience than their local songwriter’s group and occasional village fete’s ......... and I’m just the man to shout about that dual talent from the metaphorical rooftops!


 - The Rocking Magpie blog