Reviews

A New Zealand original

San Francisco Examiner 4th Aug 2010 by Tom Lanham

Most aspiring young musicians usually settle on an appropriately rock ’n’ roll instrument, like bass, guitar or drums. New Zealander Don McGlashan, however, opted for the French horn as a kid before settling on the unlikely — and unwieldy — euphonium.

“And add to that having freckles and red hair, and you’ve got a lot of conditions which would lead to getting your ass kicked,” says the ex-frontman — who’ll be utilizing a much smaller baritone horn when he plays solo in The City next week — of clever Kiwi combo the Mutton Birds.

“But I was quite good at athletics in school, so if anybody gave me trouble I just ran away,” McGlashan says. “And I was a very fast runner.”

Along with mandolin and guitar, McGlashan, 51, recently played euphonium on tour with his good friends Crowded House, who in turn featured him as their opening act.

But, why the awkward instrument choice?

“I had a very aggressive brass teacher in school,” McGlashan says. “He tried to get me to play trumpet, but my teeth were too crooked. And he needed a good euphonium player, so he managed to convince me that the euphonium was made for me and it would get me lots of girls.”

Girls? Check. McGlashan’s been married for the past 20 years.

“But I’m not sure the euphonium had anything to do with that,” he says, exemplifying the subtly wry wit bubbling through the Mutton Birds catalog and his two latest solo sets, “Warm Hand” and “Marvellous Year.”

New “Year” tracks like “Bad Blood” and “18th Day” are some of his finest efforts, constructed on oblique-chorded pop scaffolding and buttressed with arcane, picturesque lyrics.

As with the best New Zealand music, the hooks are there, but hunting for them is half the fun.

Never heard of the Mutton Birds?

“Hey, we did try in America,” McGlashan says, referring to exactly two stateside showcases in 1997 before their prospective label deal imploded and they returned to their adopted home of London.

Post-breakup, he headed home, where he’s currently working with side group The Bellbirds, and on several TV and film soundtracks.

“In New Zealand, I can write songs, collaborate with lots of people, and if I phone somebody up they’ll actually answer my call and come do a session,” McGlashan says.

In keeping with his new Zen-like attitude, the singer is taking a songwriting train trip from Chicago to Oakland this week, horn in tow.

“I don’t worry about illegal downloading or how many people turn up to the gigs anymore,” he says. “There’s too much to think about just writing songs and singing them to people!”

Don McGlashan at Dingwalls

http://www.nznewsuk.co.uk/living/?ID=10369&StartRow=1 29th Jul 2010 by Melissa Butters

26 Jul 2010

GIG: 22 July 2010 
REVIEW: An excited crowd filled the dark and intimate venue located in the heart of Camden Lock. Illuminated only by dim blue lights I was guided down the stairs to face a very modest stage. Approaching the bar I was asked by the bartender “Are you here to see ‘The Don’? I hear he’s a bit of a legend!” He was not informed wrongly. On this tiny little stage some magic took place tonight. 

First to take the stage is Rodney Fisher (ex frontman of NZ Band Goodshirt) accompanied by his 4 piece band ‘The Rest’. They deliver a set filled with beautiful melodies in a nostalgic folk / country style. Rodney’s sentimental voice and lyrics are complimented with the angelic vocals of his female backing singer. Rodney Fisher’s new music is a far cry from the days of Goodshirt’s grunge/pop-rock songs ‘Buck it Up’ and Blowing Dirt, but is in no way less commendable.

Anton Barbeau and the ‘Antband” featuring Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor are next to fill the stage. The artist from Sacramento warmed the crowd with an original and joyful set.

The venue became tightly packed as the legend was soon to take the stage. Catching Rodney Fisher in the crowd I asked him for a word or two on ‘The Don’, with a huge smile across his he claimed “I’m a massive, massive fan!”.

With his guitar slung across his back, a flugel horn in one hand a glass of red wine in the other, Don McGlashan (ex frontman of Blam Blam Blam and The Mutton Birds) took to the stage, which seemed even smaller with his presence. He greeted the crowd humbly by telling stories and jokes as though chatting to a friend, making the kiwis in the crowd (of which I’m sure was the majority of the room) feel right at home. During the set we were treated to an array of songs from his earlier Mutton Birds days to his current hits such as Envy of Angels, which he dedicated to his Father.

During his songs Don demonstrated his multi-instrumentalism - which consisted of the harmonica, egg shaker, flugal horn and a guitar which he would record live on to loops throughout the set thus creating beautiful textures and harmonies as a one-man band.

Despite claiming to be jet lagged the room was full of energy, Don had the room echoing with whistles as the chords to ‘Dominion Road’ sung out. The lyrics to Don's songs cover as much physical distance as the man himself from the heart of rural New Zealand, Harbour Bridge and Takapuna Beach to the platform of Camden Underground Station. The room was captivated by his heartfelt rendition of `Bathe in the River’ which he sang with effortless beauty. The hour long set came to a victorious end during his second encore with Mutton Birds classic ‘Anchor Me’, which had the audience dancing and singing in unison.

It was the perfect evening filled with great music and a sense of patriotism and nostalgia. Don McGlashan is a New Zealand icon in the music world so you’d have been foolish to have missed this chance to see him live. 

Photo credits: www.melissabuttersphotography.com 

http://www.nznewsuk.co.uk/living/?ID=10369&StartRow=1

Marvellous Year - dipped in gold

29th Sep 2009 by Jack Rabid - The Big Takeover


Don McGlashan & the Seven Sisters - Marvellous Year (Arch Hill NZ)

Solo album two is every bit as beautifully sensuous. Oh lordy, if this writer does little else, can I introduce you to this talented man at long last? Going back to four incredible Mutton Birds (1991-2002) albums, the classically trained, mild-mannered, 50-year-old New Zealand singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has written and sung music as divinely, quietly moving as the greatest by The Chills or other Kiwi countrymen—filled with understated romantic sentiment and that island nation’s subconscious undercurrents. As ever, the marvelous Marvellous has tunes as drop-dead wonderful as 2006’s Warm Hand’s “Harbour Bridge” or “Toy Factory Fire,” or his immortal Mutton Birds classics (“While You Sleep,” “Ngaire,” “Come Around,” “April,” the list is long!); songs so lovely, you’re drawn to them like Star Trek tractor beams. Start with the crystalline guitar pop of “Bad Blood” (with its haunting “And nothing is the same, anymore” tagline), the nervous “Not Ready” (its perturbed strings forming striking counter-tension) and the playful title track. But like Warm Hand, one could drop the needle, laser, or iTunes pointer anywhere, and feel securely absorbed in its beautiful blanket of soulful sound and feeling—for this composer and evocative lyricist’s pen is once again dipped in buckets of gold.

Marvellous Year Review

NZ Herald 12th Mar 2009 by Russell Baillie
Rating: * * * *

Don McGlashan's 2006 debut solo album Warm Hand 2006 was full of stories. There were character-driven narratives aplenty and much geography.

This new one doesn't follow that pattern - for stories and scenery, Marvellous Year substitutes poetry and astronomy. And jointly credited to his live backers the Seven Sisters, it's also having quite a lot of noisy fun around the edges. In its latter stages, it sounds less like McGlashan the solo teller-of-tales than the guy who once fronted the Muttonbirds.


Full story

Vancouver Review

Plank magazine 26th Jan 2009 by Andrew Templeton
Don McGlashan will likely never know of the merry dance he had behind the scenes here at Plank. No fewer than four different reviewers were assigned to this gig but all – for various reasons – had to pull out; the last for the most understandable reason that she’d been nominated for an award and the ceremony was the same night!
Full story

Blam Blam Blam at the Kings Arms

Public Address 1st Oct 2007 by Russell Brown
Anyway, the other reason I wasn't going anywhere early today was that I went to see Blam Blam Blam play at the King's Arms. I was all set to take the easy option and stay in, but my Big Cool Friend picked me up and dropped me off. I'm glad I made the effort; or, rather, that she did. Full story

Magic Music Inside Tent

Cjristcjhurch Press 6th Aug 2007 by Matt Davey
Don McGlashan – along with the likes of Dave Dobbyn, Neil Finn and Greg Johnson – sits on the top shelf of New Zealand songwriters. Full story

Hope Bros Review

Lumiere 28th Jun 2007 by Simon Sweetman
Don McGlashan & Seven Sisters
@ Hope Brothers
Thursday, June 21

Reviewed by Simon Sweetman

We know Don McGlashan from his work with The Mutton Birds, and before that with The Front Lawn. And for some, before that, with Blam Blam Blam. We know him for his work as a film composer (most recently No.2 – many moons ago, An Angle At My Table). We know him for his solo album Warm Hand and we know him because of his warm voice. But the Don McGlashan that took the stage with Seven Sisters (his new-ish backing band) was not necessarily the same man we know from his clever, colloquial songs. This was a fired-up McGlashan spitting out a barroom-rocking gospel as drummer Chris O’Connor churned a buttery backbeat and the empathetic basslines of Marie Thom (subbing for SJD, one assumes) were woven in and around the pedal steel lashings from John Segovia. It was a tight-but-loose sound and the first couple of numbers felt like they could be off a Dave Dobbyn Sings Grand Funk Railroad album. It was a different side of Don.

Several new songs – for an apparently upcoming second solo album – showcased McGlashan’s uncanny ear for a great tune, whether dressed in country attire, rock and pop clothes or some softly shuffling folk shoes. ‘Come Back’ was set to a lilting cosmic country sway, whilst ‘Face In The Paper’ (an old Mutton Birds offcut) has been remade to match the sound of several of the subdued pieces from Warm Hand.

The crowd loves hearing the hits – of course – and when ‘Pulled Along By Love’ closes the show, or early on when ‘Dominion Road’, ever so slightly re-jigged, is introduced there is huge, immediate, applause. The Warm Hand songs are welcomed also, particularly ‘Harbour Bridge’ and ‘Miracle Sun’. But particularly with the Mutton Birds chestnuts, in reproduction here by a different band the reminder is served of how, at their best, McGlashan’s story-songs are never cleverer than they need to be, but so often smarter than the average pop-rock three-minute blast.

A mini-set of acoustic folk (O’Connor adopts an Irish Bodhran, Thom switches to accordion) sees a gem from Songs From The Front Lawn, ah but it’s not ‘Andy’ which several vocal members of the crowd beg for. And despite the presence of a euphonium case we never get to hear ‘The Heater’ or ‘A Thing Well Made’. Alas, no blasts from the brass tonight. This is not to suggest that McGlashan won’t play the obvious fan-favourites though, he’s already peeled off ‘Dominion Road’, he runs through a cute folk version of ‘Nature’ (closer to Wayne Mason’s Fourmulya than the Mutton Birds’ rework was) and he’ll go on to tune and twiddle and twee in to a gorgeous take on ‘Anchor Me’. So fans’ thirsts are satiated. Even the Salty upgrade of ‘Don’t Fight It Marsha (It’s Bigger Than Both Of Us)’ makes way for much more of the spirit of the Blam Blam Blam original.

Don McGlashan is in an odd place though – he’s having to recast himself as a solo artist, but it would be unwise (as well as unsuited to him, I’m sure) to totally cast aside the baggage from his former career/s. He’s very much in the same space as Dobbyn was circa Twist and The Islander; still writing incredible songs, but having not quite reconciled his musical past.

But his future is in good hands – particularly with his assembled musical crew. Chris O’Connor fits in behind Ross Burge (The Mutton Birds) and Anthony Donaldson (The Front Lawn) as an idiosyncratic percussionist that, regardless of deviations, is expert at nailing a groove. Segovia’s pedal steel and guitar textures focus McGlashan in the way that David Long did with the Muttons, but there’s an obvious twist of the subverted George Jones honky-tonk replacing the straighter pop-rock approach of the 1990s. And Marie Thom’s bass playing is brilliant (as is SJD’s when he works with McGlashan) – literally full of colour whilst supporting the bottom end.

McGlashan’s own version of the song recently gifted to Hollie Smith (and the movie No.2) ‘Bathe In The River’ shows that, in the hands of its writer, it is as much a country song as it is as gospel-soul endeavour. But then, McGlashan has always written country songs – many of the finest about this country and for this country – and his encore version of ‘I Will Not Let You Down’ (written by Sean James Donnelly for McGlashan for Warm Hand) showcased the yearning and searching that McGlashan’s vocals convey, even if it’s the pen of someone else that has put the idea in place. (The recent inclusion of that song in Robert Sarkies’ Out Of The Blue perhaps backs up the assertion that both of McGlashan’s voices – his songwriting one and his actual larynx – are inextricably tied to the lay of the land here?)

He should, by virtue of doing his own thing, go without comparison (though it’s meant sincerely as a compliment) but there are only three other songwriters working in and around the country who could, on any given night, throw out a setlist that could compare. I’ve mentioned one of them already. And the other two, as if you couldn’t guess, are brothers.

AK07 ; Don at the Spiegeltent

17th Mar 2007 by Susanna Culllinane
'd like to say McGlashan opened to Harbour Bridge from Warm Hand but can only go as far as saying that's the song I walked into. The Spiegeltent obviously kicked off on time, but your Herald reviewer, sadly, due to 'technical difficulties' did not. Full story

Radio New Zealand

31st Oct 2006 by Nick Bollinger. Audio Review
Google 'Don McGlashan Sampler Review'. That link works but direct link doesn't seem to

Full New York Magazine Review

Big Takeover Magazine Issue 49 24th Aug 2006 by Jack Rabid
* * *
don mcglashan

warm hand
(Arch Hill NZ)

I'm still mourning the demise of the great New Zealand popsters The Mutton Birds in 2002 (may they reform someday!). But some of the sting has diminished via the fine album by one-time second banana Alan Gregg as Marshmallow and finally (after four years of writing for Kiwi film and TV), this rather great debut solo LP by the band's ex-leader, McGlashan. Bravo.
Right off the bat there's two strong tracks that remind of his late, great output (don't miss 1996's incredible Envy of Angels) in "This is London" and the more subdued "Toy Factory Fire"-which, as ever, feature his lovely voice and knack for little observations. There's soon another, crowning pop-tune, "Harbour Bridge." One of 2006's songs of the year, its evocative, emotional tug of war is prime McGlashan, filled with doubts, regrets (he has a few), and self-recriminations for a sticky romance while it's disintegrating. As usual, it's fraught with perceptive, gotcha snapshots like "I drove her to the airport/And I ran out of things to say." And musically, it's another prize, like his all-time classic "While You Sleep" or "April," "Winning Numbers," and "She's Been Talking." Take ringing guitars, a devastating melody, breezy melancholy, a mild, pretty slide guitar or pedal steel solo, and supreme self-harmonies, and you've got a massive winner.
Thereafter the LP gets lighter (a few more up-tempo numbers wouldn't've hurt, but that's pure quibble), making the whole more of a grower than Mutton Birds' immediate pleasures. Yet the results are beautifully beguiling and soulful-just more reflective. In particular, the one song by bassist Sean Donnelly, "I Will Not Let You Down," is a gem, and the hushed breaks midway through "Miracle Sun" and "Toy Factory Fire" are wonderfully tingling.
Lastly, in a novel addition, a foray into sociopolitics proves perfectly understated, letting you fill in your own horror, then outrage, then conclusions. "Toy Factory Fire" recalls the May 10, 1993 fire in Sam Phran, outside Bangkok, Thailand, which destroyed the Kader Industrial Toy Factory-makers of stuffed and plastic Simpsons and Cabbage Patch dolls for our ravenous U.S. market. The worst accidental Factory disaster ever (eclipsing New York's infamous, similar March 25, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist blaze), it killed 188, 174 of them women and teenaged girls, with 449 more rushed to the hospital. Tellingly, 168 died in a single stairwell before Building 1 collapsed, suggesting the "deathtrap" the song mentions, with allegations of locked fire exits to prevent impoverished sweatshop workers from stealing-and, perhaps, as the song claims, to keep out unions. "Here's Bart Simpson, with his arms all melted and twisted/And here's one of Big Bird, with his feathers all matted and black/And here are the rows of young women/Wrapped up in bolts of white nylon/And the families from the countryside come to take their daughters back" coos McGlashan gently, in lamenting lullaby, over pretty strings, picked guitar, and lap steel. Implicitly implying the irony in the joy of toys for first world children causing the ultimate misery for globalization's neo-slave labor, this is powerful stuff for a pop record, indeed.
Tired of music bereft of intelligence, sufficient human spirit, or tunes you can't lose? McGlashan is a consistent wonder, and his rare LPs demand your dollar. (archhill.co.nz; donmcglashan.com)
by Jack Rabid
* * *

Warm Hand in New York Mag's Top Ten

The Big Takeover 19th Jul 2006 by Jack Rabid
I’m still mourning the demise of the great New Zealand popsters THE MUTTONBIRDS, but some of the sting has been taken off by the fine work by one of the ex-members ALAN GREGG as MARSHMALLOW and now, at long last, this first ever solo LP by the band’s ex-leader and industry vet. Right off the bat there’s a couple of great pop tunes that will remind you of his best former work (like “While You Sleep”) such as “This is London” and “Toy Factory Fire,” which as ever feature his lovely voice and knack for the little things in his observations.

Full story

The Don Gets Close Up And Personal

NZBC 26th May 2006 by Chris Bell
Don McGlashan, ‘Warm Hand’
(Arch Hill AHR024)
CD review: ****½
In 1993, “the worst industrial fire in the history of capitalism” occurred at the Kader Industrial toy factory outside Bangkok, seriously injuring 469 workers and killing a further 188. Desperate and trapped by the fire, many had jumped to their deaths. The workers had been making Sesame Street, Bart Simpson and Muppets toys for western markets.

And so we find ourselves a long way from home, and a long way from three-minute pop single territory. To listen to Toy Factory Fire is to spend seven minutes in the kind of place only writers as confident and skilful as Dylan, Gabriel, Costello and Zevon normally feel at home. Full story

Smoke CDs

22nd May 2006
Smoke Notes
It's hard to believe that this is the first solo album by one of New Zealand's most revered singer-songwriters. With over two and a half decades of musical output behind him - from early chart forays with his 'agit-punk' band Blam Blam Blam in the 80s, through to the critically acclaimed work with music/theatre/film duo of The Front Lawn, and then to the chart-topping success of The Muttonbirds through the 90s as well as film and television soundtrack work in the intervening years, including the successful No. 2 soundtrack earlier this year - McGlashan has consistently produced songs that have not only achieved popular and critical success, they have, in many cases, become part of New Zealand's cultural psyche.

Full story

Two Warm Hands

22nd May 2006 by Nic - A Fan
Dear Don,
>
> I bought "Warm Hand" yesterday and I'm speechless. Never before have
> I had to pause a track mid-way through, from being overwhelmed by
> emotion. On first hearing the album yesterday I just lost it during
> "I Will Not Let You Down" (go Sean). It's exquisite... as is the
> whole album. It's a beautiful trip full of subtle arrangements and
> delicious little surprises - "Interlude" and a celebration of human
> emotion - the good, the bad and the ugly, and of love. How refreshing
> to hear a man delighting in his family.
>
> congratulations, and thankyou so much.
>
> Nic

First 'Warm Hand' Review

NZ Herald 13th May 2006 by Russell Baillie

Don McGlashan: Warm Hand
reviewed by Russell Baillie

Herald rating: * * * *

Don McGlashan's first album under his own name arrives at a time he's got a top ten hit under somebody else's. From his soundtrack to the film No 2, Bathe In the River sung by Hollie Smith, is McGlashan's first blip on the pop radar since the Mutton Birds quietly called it a day at the turn of the century, having given it a good go across four studio albums here and Up Over.

Full story

Don McGlashan Anchors Away

NZ Herald 6th May 2006 by Russell Baillie
Don McGlashan has a fresh wind in his sails. Well, sail.

For on this Anzac Day morning we are sitting in his Laser as the singer-songwriter finds a puff of breeze and the craft picks up a few knots across the dark brown waters of Takapuna's Lake Pupuke.

It only has the one mainsail. And on breezier days even that can be more than enough for the short but solid McGlashan.

So with variable winds out of the northwest and only the swans and some waka ama teams for company we splash about going nowhere in particular. We talk, the conversation punctuated by Captain Don's observations on the flukey breeze and polite commands to go about.

The reason for this waterborne chat is ostensibly his long-anticipated post-Mutton Birds solo album Warm Hand. As he rigged the boat earlier he found the idea ironic.

"This is the only place I don't think about music."

Full story

Don McGlashan Winning Hand

Sunday Star Times 1st May 2006 by Megan Nicol Reed
Don McGlashan's songs are a soundtrack to our national psyche but that doesn't make talking about them any easier, writes Megan Nicol Reed.

A man walks along the road. He wears a hunting cap, his face obscured by its fur- lined flaps. On a Canadian moose hunter it would look fitting, here in halfway house territory it's a sure sign he is without fixed abode, possibly mad. "That's a Dominion Rd hat," observes Don McGlashan. "That's his look. Sometimes he wears a bicycle helmet with slogans on it. You know, on bits of sticky tape."


Full story

And Quiet Flows The Don

The Dominion Post 7th Mar 2006 by Robyn McLean

From his early days in Blam Blam Blam to years playing in London, reminding homesick Kiwis of how good life was downunder, Don McGlashan has long managed to capture the mood of a nation and has no plans to retire, as he tells Robyn McLean.


Don McGlashan has managed to capture the essence of New Zealand in his songs. His music is the stuff homesick Kiwis turn to as they battle through grey London winters. Like a genie released from a bottle, McGlashan's sound has the power to take you home, no matter where in the world you are.

But the man behind Anchor Me, his iconic song that won him the Apra Silver Scroll in 1994, has never been anchored in any particular style or musical group. He's more of a collaborator.

Full story

Ex Mutton Bird Takes Flight

NZ Herald 27th Feb 2006 by Catherine Harris

Don McGlashan is about to fly solo and, he says, it's about time.

The Auckland singer-songwriter is a man of many parts. He has written music for films and TV, made short films, done musical comedy, and was the force behind seminal band the Mutton Birds.

Now, after years of collaborations, McGlashan is due to release his first solo album, Warm Hand, in May.

Full story