NQ Arbuckle

Last Supper In A Cheap Town – (Six Shooter)

Last Supper In A Cheap Town, NQ Arbuckle’s second long-player (the first was more of  a solo vehicle for leader Neville Quinlan) is a profound piece of music that’s sure to resonate desperate truths with many.  In fact, it plays very much as a lifestyle soundtrack thanks to the repeated images of full ashtrays, beer bottles, and the dread that comes with closing time having arrived without anything grand happening.  Against this backdrop, Quinlan’s gravely voice sounds as pleading as it should.  After all, songs like “Cheap Town” and  “Darkness Has Fallen” aren’t about isolation in any traditional sense, but about finding a place in big cities and crowded clubs and hoping that you can find someone to share that place with.

This condition comes off as highly romanticized on Last Supper In A Cheap Town but not to the point of being maudlin.  There’s no sense of “poor me” syndrome here and much of that has to do with lines like “And I can’t even breathe when you’re not around, I’m so crazy for you I’d burn your house down”.  With sentiments like that, we’re convinced that the characters that populate these songs (Quinlan himself in most cases, presumably) are doing the only thing they can do to distinguish themselves – they’re just being honest.

It therefore makes sense that much of the music here would fall into a more roots or country profile – after all, that’s the place where such singer-songwriter troubadours reside. Luke Doucet’s tasteful production and even more tasteful guest guitar spots add this stamp to much of Last Supper In A Cheap Town. Thankfully, we also get a fair bit of diversity here as well.  While we’re likely to slink back in our chairs over “You Look Like A Wreck” (Carolyn Mark has a guest vocal here) we’ll find the dance floor irresistible for “I Can See The Moon”.  And if there’s a more perfect fit between the longing words of “The Autumn Leaves” and its rough-and-ragged guitar break I’d love to hear it.

Last Supper In A Cheap Town is an easy CD to go back to over and over thanks to these many things it has going for it.  It delivers with a lot more purpose than a mere collection of tunes would.  Listening to it is a commitment, and one that leads to huge rewards.

8.7