Album Review: The Teskey Brothers – The Winding Way

With The Winding Way, The Teskey Brothers deliver a classic Blues Rock album complete with incredibly soulful vocals and understated yet technically superb instrumentals, as well as proving that life as a duo after band members Brendon Love and Liam Gough will still be as successful as their burgeoning career had been so far.

Opening track, I’m Leaving may begin the record in a soft and warm tone but also proves to be a perfect warmup to an album that ebbs and flows with it’s dynamics in a very satisfying way. Expect some surprises too, as with songs such as Oceans Of Emotions you may be settling in to what seems like a classic country ballad, only for the lyrics to twist to those of heartbreak and lost, adding a whole new dimension to the song. Blind Without You carries this theme om, opening with delicately strummed acoustic guitars and vocals that almost seem to be holding back until the wrenching chorus, which perfectly matches the switch to the harder hitting lyrics “I’m blind without you, without you in my arms”. The questions raised of one’s behaviour during a relationship (and how they might have contributed to its downfall) are explored in the mournful Remember The Time, the instrumentals for which display a switch up to a blues-infused swing that represents a welcome dynamic shift on the record.

Take My Heart contains some of the most heartfelt lyrics on the album with lines such as “so take my heart and cut it into two, after all, the only thing missing was you”, whilst London Bridge lends one of the catchiest choruses on the list, whilst also feeling like an ode to loss. Naturally, elements of Soul and Blues guitar are strong on this record, but Carry Me Home nails a classic country vibe, if only for its whimsical inclusion of a harmonica. Gospel also has a strong influence here, especially on the high energy and tempo This Will Be Our Year. The album ends with an epic conclusion in What Will Be, which (clocking in at nearly 8 minutes long) is the longest song on the album, with a slow build satisfyingly paying off to a fantastic guitar solo, then crescending to an explosive peak only to wind down to create the perfect and fitting end to a marvellous record.

The Teskey Brothers can rightly count themselves as one of the brightest gems of the Australian music scene and have proven before that their appeal reaches far out across the world. The Winding Way is sure to be a massive hit with their die-hard fans, as well converting countless others on their current UK tour.

Matt Say