Maintenance - EP

Album Review

Winnipeg's Greg MacPherson is a tremendous talent, whether he's working his own material or a song from his youth. In an instance of the latter, MacPherson reinvents a cover of the Clash's reggae staple "Bankrobber," making it his own as an emotive, acoustic number — one that just might rival the original in terms of ingenuity. If it sounds sacreligious to monkey with the only band that mattered, it's one of several reasons this EP works so well. With his own material, MacPherson seems equally intense, drawing on Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska and Joe Strummer's late-period solo efforts for Good Times, while sounding so much like Richard Thompson it is eerie. Armed with a just a six-string for his first solo acoustic turn, MacPherson is a strong story-song guy, singing out for coal miner's rights in "Company Store" with a power not felt since the early days of Billy Bragg. ~ John D. Luerssen, Rovi