The way back home: An original musical album

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Published on Thursday, November 29, 2012

By: Ken Waddell

myWestman.ca

When a guy holes up in his garage for months on end you know he’s making something. In Phil Nevile’s case, it wasn’t a boat or a set of cupboards, it was a CD. Nevile’s first CD of his own music is all original. It’s a completely homegrown set of music and he plays every instrument.

Nevile said at his CD release party on Saturday night at Neepawa that, “Some of the songs have as many as 20 tracks”. There’s another difference. By the use of Virtual Studio Technology (VST), Nevile explained that he used his keyboard to play all the different piano and keyboard tracks.

“This technology also allows me to play a guitar or a trumpet or any other instrument from the keyboard but for those instruments you have to play your keyboard like  a guitar for example (cadence and timing etc.)."

Nevile’s explanation gets even more complicated. Except for two of the 11 songs on his CD where he utilizes vocals from Clare Bestland and local singer Rachel Quelch, Nevile performs the female voice tracks too. “VST allows me to convert my voice to various female voices or other male voices.”

The overall effect is entrancing as Nevile took his fans through all 11 songs at the release party, the written lyrics came up on a screen, the music flows, of course from the CD. A couple of the songs have an accompanying video.

But the real magic of the work comes out in what is Nevile’s first-ever compilation of his own writing. While an accomplished artist in the blues band and club environment, Nevile excels when he puts his own stuff, his own life out there for all to see.

The work is eclectic but it is also very good listening and can only be deemed as brilliant. Nevile was raised in Neepawa and has visited family here often. A few years ago, he moved back to town and music has been a big part of his life and obviously continues to be.

Fittingly, the first  song is called The Way Back Home. There’s a song about a mysterious local person and Nevile says “We’ve all met someone like this”. His Box of Bones song is, well, haunting and reminds everyone of their mortality and the futility of “the need for gold”.

Having traveled the entertainment circuit  and been part of it for years, Nevile relates to every aspiring artist with the title “Hard Mistress”. There’s also two instrumental numbers, one called Stallions and one dedicated to his Ecuadorian experience called “Quito”.

There’s some surprises in the CD as well and that should make everyone want to buy a CD. They are available at Amazon.com, CD Baby, Z Tunes and at the Neepawa Banner in downtown Neepawa.

In photo: Phil Neville's CD cover