Fish Records Review- Bad Nights/Better Days

Abbie Gardner & Anthony da Costa –

Bad Nights, Better Days

By Neil Pearson

Following on quickly from the release of Anthony’s superb solo album ‘Typical American Tragedy’, is ‘Bad Nights/Better Days’ a duo collection with multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter, Abbie Gardner. While Anthony is blazing a trail on the singer/songwriter scene and Abbie plays both solo and with Americana-trio ‘Red Molly’, this disc has a distinct feel that sits somewhere between Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart and Gillian Welch & David Rawlings. They’ll certainly be likened to these artists, and the power, honesty and quality across the 13 songs is guaranteed to make many people take notice and bring them to a wider

audience.

What is most striking is the edge to the songs, and like Anthony’s recent solo album, the recordings are full of energy and life, they’re by no means rough or ready, but they have a genuine feel of an honest recording that can often get lost in over-production. This approach works well on the fuller tracks such as ‘Spent’ and ‘Red Barn’, but it turns the quieter more acoustic tracks such as ‘You Remind Me’ and ‘Better Days’ into truly beautiful songs. The advantage of the more open sounding songs allows Abbie and Anthony’s vocals to stand out, and the combination of their vocals is genuinely powerful — they’re both expressive singers, but together they really work well and there are many memorable moments across the whole album.   Anthony provides most of the guitar, while Abbie plays dobro and lap steel, but there’s nothing too showy here — she’s an excellent player and sympathetic to the material; other instrumentation includes strings, bass and percussion. Add this album to Anthony’s ‘Typical American Tragedy’ and it’s obvious he’s going to be leading a new generation of singer/songwriters in the near future; he may be a young man but he writes and performs with the skill of some of the very best, and combining his skills with voice and instrumental ability of Abbie makes it even better.

Very highly recommended.