"All The Cards" by Caleb Murray

It's probably asking a bit much for even the most attentive reader of the magazine to recall an article from July 2019, but three years ago I was reviewing Caleb Murray's  'Stories From A Sunny Side', his first full studio album, one which among many tracks, contained "All The Cards".

Subsequently he has reviewed the production, felt that it didn't do the song(s) sufficient justice & so returned to this one to see if he could manage to hit the target nearer what he perceives as the centre & so has released it as a single, a follow up to "Another Sunset".

Let's just remind ourselves what I said originally: ".."All The Cards" is classic Caleb territory: starting like the song of a cowboy singing as he crosses some vast arid Mexican desert, alone & full of regret and railing at fate, the arrangement builds somewhat but the focus is his voice throughout, mixed very prominently…"

The song itself remains much the same in terms of composition which is just as well as it's a strong & compelling one. However I think Caleb is right as the picture he paints seems more vivid second time around: his voice still high in the mix, but this time on top of a full band, composing, in addition to the man himself on guitar, George Morton on bass and Tom Askew on drums, Scott Morrison on electric guitar and with Helena Ward on backing vocals. They all add extra quality without distracting from the song's inherent attributes ("......not bad for something I wrote hungover in my tiny final year uni bedroom..") and the additional polish does no harm at all either in boosting the clarity.