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Waxed - Record Review from Issue #59 Sept-Oct 2005

Mark Ambrose

Put The Hammer Down (Redbird)

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Gillian Welch & David Rawlings retained keys to RCA’s historic Studio B after they finished Time (The Revelator) back in 2001. So they spent two days cutting an album with a friend from Texas, name of Mark Ambrose. Perhaps because his isn’t a bankable name (this isn’t his first record), nothing much happened, and it’s only a guess — and a hope — that the disc they gave people four years ago is the same one now called Put The Hammer Down. Ambrose proves an adept acoustic folk-blues practitioner, reminiscent of a young Tom Rush, with an easy, engaging voice, and a sure, lyrical touch. The sessions have that same quiet confidence, no hint of rush (save for Rawlings’ instruction not to quit a take), the work of friends who know how to fit together. Welch duets on “Banks Of Jordan” and “Going To New Orleans”, which makes this of interest to Gillian completists, but Ambrose’s songs stand on their own.

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Originally Featured in Issue #59 Sept-Oct 2005

Cover of Issue #59 Sept-Oct 2005

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