Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses - Tunnel At The End Of The Light (2015)

Clicking through Tex Perkins’ Facebook page, it seems like this venerated singer – Beasts Of Bourbon, The Cruel Sea, Tex, Don and Charlie ( the country-blues Aussie supergroup formed with Cold Chisel’s Don Walker ), among several others – has carved out a second career for himself as a singer with cover band projects.

Notably, his salacious, velvety growl has seen him portraying Johnny Cash and Lee Hazelwood on separate national tours. Both bad men, with a love for liquor and slicked-back hair.

Tunnel at the End of the Light is the fifth album from the Dark Horses – the band Perkins originally formed to fulfil a (solo) record contract, featuring long-time collaborators Charlie Owen, Joel Silbersher and Murray Paterson. The album is fine, faultless in a way – languid, regretful and steeped in the lore of the open land, the sound of closing prison gates welcoming in the melancholy title track.