Iain Shedden

The Australian

December 30th, 2006

****

Some may have thought it odd to have Shane Howard opening for American pop legend Carole King on some of her recent Australian dates, but no one could argue that they are not both consistent, prolific and long-serving songwriters. Howard has also been enjoting a bit of a Goanna renaissance lately thanks to his appearance as his 1980’s band’s representative on the touring Countdown Spectacular.

Almost 25 years after Solid Rock hit the charts, he is still writing quality folk songs that capture the spiritual, cultural and political heart of Australia. This collection, (recorded in his home studio in Killarney, Victoria), is a beautifully simple, acoustic affair, aided in parts by contributions from family members and friends. It has a refreshingly uncluttered approach. On the simple love songs Rather Have Your Love and Lovin’ Heart, all that’s missing is a campfire.

He turns up the heat on the more vehement Rise Up but turns emotions in a completely different direction with a moving eulogy to former Crowded House drummer Paul Hester on Empty House. A fine example of Australian folk that is true but never twee.

Bruce Elder

Sydney Morning Herald

January 25, 2007

From the mainstream 1980's rock of Goanna and the hit Solid Rock, Shane Howard moved quickly into full folk protest mode. The thinly disguised Gordon Franklin's Let The Franklin Flow indicated a direction that, with Songs of Love and Resistance, has reached its logical end point.

Here is Howard in acoustic mode with a wonderful, carefully crafted mixture of songs about love and politics. He sounds as though he has drunk deeply from the same fountain that gave the world Henry Lawson, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. There are gentle love songs such as Lovin' Heart , with family members Myra Howard and Jack Howard on backing vocals. There's pure Woody Guthrie in the wry and amusing Keep Me Away From You and Dylan circa 1963, with nasal delivery and simple polemic, in Rise Up.

All the songs are saturated in Australian imagery: the shack on the beach, the Eureka Stockade, the Great Divide, Mudgee, Gulgong, et al. A gentle bonus is Howard's touching Empty House, dedicated to the late Paul Hester.

Michael Dwyer

The Age

January 20th, 2007

Budgerigars, billabongs and Djarindjin girls are hard to fit into pop songs for metrical reasons. The apparent dearth of political songs is harder to explain. Shane Howard isn’t one for convention on either count. As indicated by its direct title, his ninth solo album is a persuasive reaffirmation of occasionally forgotten Australian values.

His intimate, wood-grained, folk approach is well on the mellifluous side of Billy Bragg but the gist of his Eureka Stockade memento, Rise Up, is of similar, trade-union-hall bent. Big God, Little God is more dreamtime parable than rally anthem and more powerful for it. Ringing with 30 years of craft and passion, Howard’s songs of love are no less stirring.

David Curry

Canberra Times

January, 2007

It’s been a long time since Shane Howard was in the charts with Goanna’s Solid Rock, but I’m happy to report he’s still going strong. Howard has seen more than his fair share of personal hardship, but there’s no bitterness in these reflective and life-affirming folk/country songs.

The album gets off to a jaunty start with the country swing of A Little Bit Of Lovin’, complete with fiddles, then switches to bluegrass for Keep Me Away From You, which sneaks a couple of sly digs at Phillip Ruddock into a song about a troublesome girlfriend.

It’s not all smiles: Rather Be Here is a beautiful song about finding hope in the darkest of times, while Empty House, which recalls a brothers suicide, is heartbreakingly poignant.

Songs of Love and Resistance is up close and personal, with just fiddles and soulful female harmonies to augment Howard’s warm vocals and acoustic guitar. Often it’s just Howard and his guitar, singing no doubt much as he does around a campfire, (you can even hear crickets on one track). Understated and lovely.

Justin Grey

Xpress Magazine, Perth

January, 2007

The plethora of singer-songwriters emerging from the woodwork of late should take note – songwriting instruction manuals don’t come any more profoundly clear than Shane Howard’s aptly titled ninth solo album, Songs Of Love & Resistance.

In a similar vein as Bob Dylan’s The Freewheelin’…..and The Times They Are A Changin’, SOLAR sees the former Goanna frontman seamlessly blend the heart-achingly personal, (Rather Be Here, Been On A Journey), with rousing calls for social change, (Lovin’ Heart, Rise Up). Album highlight, Keep Me Away From You, is a humorous, yet seditious ditty, which seemingly begins as an anti-love song before narrowing into an anti-Howard administration direction.

Reflecting the surrounds in which it was recorded, (Howard’s home studio in the south west Victorian countryside), SOLAR is lush with the down home country sounds of mandolin, fiddle, banjo, dulcimer and mouth harp – most of which the multi-talented man plays himself. Shane Howard’s worth as a national icon is yet again confirmed.