The Dunwells’ Blind Sighted Faith
By Seth M
Formed in 2009 in Yorkshire UK, The Dunwells are Joseph Dunwell and David Dunwell, Jonny Lamb, Rob Clayton and Dave Hanson. I happened to be driving somewhere recently, flipping around the radio, when I caught the end of “I Could Be a King.” It was good, so I checked my Sirius radio and saw that I was listening to The Dunwells. A couple of days later, as luck would have it, a friend asked if I wanted to borrow his copy of the album; ever eager to expand my musical horizons, I did, and here’s my two cents.
Well, The Dunwells’ CD is (sorry!) done well ~ it’s a solid debut album across 11 tracks:
1. I Could Be A King
2. Blind Sighted Faith
3. So Beautiful
4. Only Me
5. Elizabeth 4:25
6. Follow The Road
7. Borrow Me 4:38
8. Goodnight My City
9. Hand That Feeds
10. Dance With Me
11. Oh Lord
If you’re into discovering new bands who have a couple of very catchy, very original songs and some that are reminiscent of artists of the past, you’ll likely enjoy Blind Sighted Faith. A few of the songs are a bit slow for my liking but there are others that are definite thumbs up stand-outs.
The 1st track, “I Could Be a King,” is a great pop song with a good guitar riff ~ but I have to be honest, given the title and the lyrics I think it could easily make its way into Disney’s next release of The Lion King; that’s not a criticism at all ~ the track just has that feel…and hey, Disney picking up a band’s song is NOT a bad thing for anyone involved!
When you listen to The Dunwells, you’ll be captivated by the harmonizing; you will hear tinges of The Eagles as well as Crosby, Stills and Nash. Fittingly, the harmonies are at their best on the title track “Blind Sighted Faith.”
“Elizabeth” very successfully pays homage to the Eagles at their best: it offers up an authentic classic folk sound mixed with country, rock and those wonderful harmonies. I’ve already added it to one of my playlists. “Hand That Feeds” has a more upbeat rock vibe and “Dance with Me” returns to the engaging folk sound that seems to come quite naturally to the band.
Photo courtesy of facebook.com/TheDunwells
There’s something about the album as a whole, too, that makes me think The Dunwells and The Script ~ although their respective sounds aren’t really that similar ~ would make a great double bill.
Blind Sighted Faith will get a few more listens from me, for sure, but the true test of the band’s talents will be whether or not they reproduce those harmonies live ~ I look forward to catching them at one of the dozen US shows on the mini-tour that kicks off April 18th in Fort Worth, TX.
You can find more information on The Dunwells and their tour dates on their official website ~ also check out: