Cleveland’s Doug McKean continues his prolific and consistently high-quality output of solo albums with his latest release – Enduring Freedom. The record has a cohesiveness that keeps your attention and keeps an embrace on your ears and guts with some of his strongest melodies and arrangements to date.

The Faces-invoking “Stiff Flag,” with it’s 12-bar blues and slap-back vocal is a loose romp and a nod to Doug’s (and my) record collection. Kickoff track “Wildfire Sun” and especially track six, “The Foul Stench of Bellaire” invoke the spirit of the recently departed Shane Macgowan, who Doug is no stranger to, regularly fronting the highly-regarded and long-standing greatest Pogues tribute in the world The Boys From the County Hell. How can that not rub off? Especially in the wake of the great troubadour’s demise.

“My Heart’s Playing Tricks on Me” sounds like what I wish Wilco might have become; honest and heart-on-sleeve raw, but without the pretentious, indulgent art-for-art’s-sake output that has plagued the once-great band since the departure of Jay Bennett. This is one of those tunes that I ponder as I listen…why didn’t I write this? It’s got that familiar-theme delivered in an unfamiliar way thing I’m always chasing, and he nails it. “Change the Way I’ve Been Loving You” starts off as if it might be a Suicaine Gratification-era Westerberg track, but quickly morphs into something new and exciting, and again, avoiding the indulgent pitfalls of the referenced influence.

What I keep coming back to after repeated listening to Enduring Freedom is how well Doug’s managed to pull off the introspective, singer/songwriter approach without pretentiousness or indulgence. Few songwriters can pull off the former without a dose of the latter, but when it happens, the music is as enduring and endearing as it gets. The songs come first in his mind, as they should, and the result is arguably his most personal, raw, and consistent release yet. Now let’s get The Stuntmen on tape and keep that catalog growing!

ORDER ENDURING FREEDOM AND DOUG’S OTHER RELEASES HERE!

Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos. Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
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