Michael McGovern - Highfield Suite (2021)

Michael McGovern’s debut album ‘Highland Suite’ is a short but sweet introduction to the talents of the Glasgow singer/songwriter and guitarist who, at 25, seemingly has an old head on a pair of surprisingly young shoulders. Inspired at an early age by the usual suspects (Dylan, Cohen, Simon, Fleet Foxes) McGovern began writing songs while still in his teens and with the forced isolation of 2020, the time was right to embark on his debut record. McGovern commenced recording with one microphone in a small wooden cabin in Galway before enlisting Bill Shanley to co-produce. The pair subtly expanding McGovern’s intricate nylon-strung fingerpicked guitar sound into full band arrangements with the addition of a rhythm section, piano, an unexpected dash of saxophone, a smattering of pedal steel and some very pleasing vocal harmonies.

The opening track ‘I’m Not Myself Today (Take Me Back)’ finds McGovern sounding like a less road-weary Willie Nelson on a track that falls into the realms of relationships, of love and often unrequited love that is like oxygen to any budding songwriter. McGovern’s vocal delivery perfectly captures the feeling of melancholy “You don’t have to stay, I’m not myself today”. The title track follows expanding on the acoustic premise with Jenny Kinane’s harmony vocal and Conor Steele’s pedal steel adding gentle colour