Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders: Happiness is Near (digital outlets)

Delaney Davidson has been enormously prolific in the past decade: at least half a dozen albums under his own name, production work for Marlon Williams, Tami Neilson and Troy Kingi, guest appearances and collaborations.

He fitted all these in around touring and appearances in television documentaries.

Davidson's collaboration with Barry Saunders' on 2019's Word Gets Around brought together seemingly disparate talents: Davidson's noir persona and Saunders the approachable fellow of the popular Warratahs.

Like Robert Mitchum from The Night of the Hunter hooking up with Jimmy Stewart.

But the album found them pulling out garageband stomp-meets-Chess blues (the title track), desperate rockabilly (All Fall Down) alongside more expected material like the country rock of Stolen River and Saunders' metaphorical ballad Long Way Home.

This time round Davidson's extraordinary ability to freight simple sentiments with veiled menace is evident on the opening title track where you don't buy for a minute that happiness is coming over the horizon.

It certainly isn't the joy of The Rapture.

There's the brooding, stalking pace Yeah Yeah Yeah (“talking about the planet on fire”), Man of Few Words has a gravitas which would have suited the old Johnny Cash (“it's all been said before”) and the uncomfortable Mean Streak (“evil in our veins . . .we're never gonna change”) isn't coming from a character but addressing the human psyche.

Here too is Evil Eye, the haunted atmosphere of These Are the Days and Little Dollar which sounds jaunty as Saunders skewers the seduction of money and those who promise wealth then reel in the innocents and gullible. It would have made as much sense in the greedy 1980s as it does today.

Davidson and Saunders tap into traditions of folk and country but Happiness is Near is about our contemporary world, existential unease and -- in its minimalist sound -- whispers that you should consider the cover image where a shadow spirit looms over the duo.

A dark but wonderful ride.

.

You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here.