Al Shalliker takes the listeners through a roller coaster in his new release of “Six White Horses” and there is an undeniable candor underneath its mainstream production. This is a track from his upcoming solo album “The Diamond Hill” on which Shalliker himself plays acoustic guitar backed up by Tony Davies on bass and Alex McGinnes on the harmonica. Together they construct a colorful complex harmony with unpretentious base where feelings and emotions are more than apparent. The coalesced tune of the guitar provides a background and overall feel to the song and Davies’s bass gives it warmth and McGinnes’s harmonica adds the blues just to balance the reflective tone the song provides.
Starting with a softly persistent guitar line, the song sets its listeners right from a mode of quiet reflection. Shalliker speaking is sincere and as if recalling personal events, when thinking about time, about memory and the people who left a mark on us. He has a great way with words and his lyrics paint a very clear picture that’s rather easy to get lost in. The song is about respecting the legacy and wisdom of ancestors; the message, thus, sounds universal and rather profound.
In “Six White Horses” Shalliker does not perform the music but rather tells a piece of story. The harmonica which gives rich soul related feel further enriches the track’s emotional potential without dominating over it. This work can be considered as song art that calls the listeners to take a moment and enjoy the process and the people that contribute to the states of becoming an individual. Hence the simplicity interspersed with brilliance in storytelling that Shalliker brings into “Six White Horses” makes it memorable and moving that one can listen to it time and again until the details of this folk listening stick to the throat and the heart.
