Description
Adrian Kosky’s full length independent album, Frozen With Intent, marks the accomplished culmination of a musical journey, the touchstones for which were mail-order LPs, a cappuccino machine and the film ‘Deliverance’.
Artist Info Adrian Kosky, guitar, vocal, dobro, mountain dulcimer, harmonica, foot stomp, cabassa
Additional musicians: Barbara Webb, Helen Cox – backing vocals, Ivan Inderbitzin – congas, Peter Risstrom – bass, Mish Dennerstein – piano, David Dore – viola
“The trouble with having listened to parodies of blues songs (like “Cliché Blues” by Mic Conway’s National Junk Band), is that it can be hard to take some blues-oriented offerings seriously. and not to perceive them as unintentional parodies. But then, perhaps the answer is to not take them too seriously anyway, and to happily treat some of them as parodies, intentional or not?! Adrian Kosky’s offering has its share of the above (“Mercedes Benz Blues, “Big Brained Women”, and to a lesser extent “I Got a Loss Here Lord”), and they point to a musician who can certainly play and sing the blues. But this CD also has so much more. Whether it is the three blues pieces, the gentle introspection of “Waking Up Older” and “If You Don’t Want to Love Me Now”, the warm country/blues feel of “That Thing”, the almost anthemic simplicity of “Frozen With Intent”, or the all-too-short happy instrumental “Big Room Boogie”, these original compositions are delightfully varied and downright entertaining. One of my favourite tracks is the sparsely arranged “In My Barn”, which speaks to me about blokes and sheds – at one level. Kosky’s singing and playing (guitar, dobro, bass drum, percussion, blues harp, cabassa, mountain dulcimer, harmonica and foot stomp) are variously supplemented, complemented and complimented by backing vocals, percussion, bass and piano. The end product is a musical collection that has been more than competently arranged, performed and engineered. Curled up near the fire, with a warm and/or warming drink on a wet grey Sunday afternoon, listening to Adrian Kosky left me anything but “frozen”. Review by Bernard Williams.
Frozen With Intent
Reviewed by Bernard Williams Trad and Now
May 2003 edition
The trouble with having listened to parodies of blues songs [like Cliché Blues by Mic Conway’s band National Junk Band] is that it can be hard to take some blues-oriented offerings seriously and not to perceive them as unintentional parodies. But then, perhaps the answer is to not take them too seriously anyway and to happily treat some of them as parodies, intentional or not?! Adrian Kosky’s offering has its share of the above [“Mercedes Benz Blues”, “Big Brained Woman” and, to a lesser extent, “I Got a Loss Here Lord”] and they point to a musician who can certainly play and sing the blues, But this CD also so much more. Whether it is the three blues pieces, the gentle introspection of “Waking Up Older” and If You Don’t Want To Love Me Now”, the warm country blues feel of “That Thing”, the almost anthemic simplicity of “Frozen With Intent” or the all too short happy instrumental “Big Room Boogie”, these original compositions are delightfully varied and downright entertaining. One of my favourite tracks is the sparsely arranged “In My Barn”, which speaks to me about blokes and sheds- at one level. Kosky’s singing and playing [guitar, dobro, bass drum, percussion, blues harp, cabassa, mountain dulcimer harmonica and foot stomp] are variously supplemented, complemented and complimented by backing vocals, percussion, bass and piano. The end product is a musical collection that has been more than competently arranged, performed and engineered. Curled up near the fire, with a warm and/or warming drink on a grey Sunday afternoon, listening to Adrian Kosky left me anything but frozen.
Frozen With Intent reviewed by Jim Low Folk Australia 2003
Adrian Kosky is a singer-songwriter living in Daylesford, Victoria. He is an accomplished acoustic musician, playing guitar, dobro and harmonica. In the concluding track Kosky treats us to some mountain dulcimer. On four of the songs Kosky is capably assisted with extra instrumentation and vocals. The CD begins in a solid, confident fashion with the blues and gospel sounding I Got A Loss Here Lord. Kosky has a very comfortable feel for the blues both in his playing and vocal delivery. The songs are interesting in their variety of musical approaches. There is, for example, the reflective Waking Up Older with its haunting, repetitious melody. Then there is the fuller sounding, catchy song of dissatisfaction That Thing. The spirited Mercedes Benz Blues carries a warning that things are not always what they seem. The concluding Big Room Boogie is a brief and breezy instrumental. The melancholy, confessional In My Barn demonstrates the effectiveness of a good melody. The title track Frozen With Intent, a song of procrastination, is enhanced by a very attractive piano and viola accompaniment.
The CD has an overall reflective, earthy feel. As Kosky says in his song In My Barn: The songs of wood and steel Wrap me in a country feel. The attractively designed CD booklet and casing help reinforce this feeling.
