Moving My Feet by The Foley McKenna Band

By Mark Kirby (more articles from this author) 2008-03-01

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The Foley McKenna Band's new EP Moving My Feet is chock full of radio friendly rock, tuneful but with just enough power and bombast to keep the ears pricked. The songs are steeped in roots rock and have a pop music flavor by way of Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Pacific Coast Highway. This is the music you'd find yourself loving if you were driving in a convertible jeep on your way to Monterey State Park on a sunny afternoon, instead of looking for a job. Or maybe that's just me. The songs are mellow and melancholy. Lead guitarist and singer Ed McKenna's vocals are a blend of Eddie Vedder and pre hippie Willie Nelson from the sixties (Willie Nelson . . . and Then I Wrote album) back when he sang a blend of country and mainstream pop.

Unlike many singers, McKenna's delivery isn't anxious at all. His voice floats in back of the beat, on top of the chords and guitar licks in a laid back and laconic way. The sound of the songs is made bigger and closer to blues and country roots by the permanent use of an acoustic guitar by Bob Nage. Drummer Phil Seshens plays basic sit-in-the-pocket, back loaded drums. He dutifully opens up when hitting the choruses and gets closer to the vest on the verse parts. The feeling of the music fits the songs in a way that harkens back to soul and blues from back in the day when men would sing of hurt and lay it on the line emotionally; for example "Last night I could have cried but I thought you wouldn't care" from the song "Brick Wall" or "Don't look back 'cause you just might see me cry" from the opening cut "Kimberley." McKenna is old school like soul giants Brooke Benton or Nelson. Those singers would combine raw emotion with masculine pride which is another way of "Keepin' It Real."

The emotions come through in a cool, conversational style on "My Friend." This tune has an easy-going groove of southern rock as played by the Red Hot Chilly Peppers in their "get chicks" power ballad mode (to quote Bevis and Butthead from back in the '90's), with Nage's blue sky guitar chords blended with McKenna's sparse, half rhythm half lead guitar, and fluid, melodic bass work by Mike Joy, who supports the chords and laid back feel of this and the other songs on the CD without getting in the way.

"Kimberley" is a serviceable number about a girl who is away and the man in the song longs for her and sadly counts the days. The song "Brick Wall," however, is much more interesting. It gives voice to those moments in a love relationship us guys try to forget - as soon as we tell our friends over drinks; that is, the moments when our women turn us into an emotional human punching bags for some minor transgression or something we didn't do. But since Captain Subtext is the in the room, casting his spell over the quarreling lovers in the song, then what she says isn't what's meant: "I die every time you say things that you don't mean / Next time just shut your eyes and think would be like to be me." And above all, Mr. Everydude, the voice in the song, must stand there dumbfounded and take it like a man: "You want me to stand like a brick and take it all . . . on / You won't be happy until your brick wall falls apart on you."

The music here, with a big sky guitar chord progression, laid back groove, and blazing guitar leads framing McKenna's drawled singing, turns a country-tinged rock tune into an anthem that has to be huge when played live. All five songs on this record are succinct and to the point, but can clearly be stretched out and jammed on. This EP shows a band with a full command of its sound and style of rock and makes one curious to hear a full scale album.

http://www.TheFMB.net/

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