Album Review: Mick Thomas' Roving Commission - Coldwater DFU

Thirty years after decamping to Memphis with his acclaimed alma mater Weddings Parties Anything to sculpt that band’s third album, The Big Don’t Argue, respected Aussie troubadour Mick Thomas returned to the region with his current outfit The Roving Commission and came back home armed with its equally-strong counterpart, Coldwater DFU, Coldwater being the recording locale and DFU a timely reminder: “Don’t fuck up.”

And fuck up they sure didn’t, the album world-class in terms of production, content and delivery. Featuring the customary subtle accordion flourishes of former WPA bandmate Mark “Squeezebox Wally” Wallace, this collection isn’t miles removed sonically from the Weddos’ trademark folk-rock stylings, with each band member more than paying off their respective airfares via routinely confident but understated performances.

And although recorded far from home, it’s a distinctly Aussie batch of songs in both tone and content, with many of the beautifully rendered tracks dealing with travel (lead single Boxing Day Drive, the poignant and affecting Bright Sunshine, thought-provoking history lesson Died In Ballarat and travelogue First Night In Asia) or change brought on by the passing of time (gorgeous spoken-word reflection Anything You Recognise, the heartfelt Lake Learmonth Motel and environmental treatise River Again).

Elsewhere, Thomas resumes his tradition of breathing vital new life into old Aussie-folk ballads (The Catalpa), but for the most part he’s continuing his well-honed skill of exploring the human condition via the examination of random life experiences or the minutiae of the daily grind, delivering the results in a voice, by now, as familiar and trusty as that of a beloved family member you see every chance you get, but forever wish you could spend more time with. As if he was going to start fucking up this far down the track…