This came out in 2005 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
“Put your finger anywhere on the atlas,” says Greg MacPherson, “somebody’s there living hard.” And chances are, Greg is writing a damn fine song about them.
On his third full-length, activist singer-guitarist MacPherson continues to pen gripping, literate tales of ex-cons, street people, hookers and everyone else who’s “born to end up losing in the end.” Voiced in his quavering, Richard Thompson-esque yelp, set to the edgy chop of his Billy Braggish guitar and backed by the restrained work of a stellar local cast, these 11 cuts form MacPherson’s most varied and fully realized work to date. And a disc destined to go down as one of the best local albums of this or any other year.
STYLE: Folk-punk protest songs for the new millennium.
SOUNDS LIKE: The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
STANDOUTS: From the slowly chugging opener Two Haircuts in One and the Latin grooves of Kingston to the twin-guitar churn of Cutting Room and the closing dirge The Sun Beats Down, Night Flares delivers the goods.
