Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart have been living and musicking together for nigh on twenty years, with an appetite for taking their songs out into the world that is pretty staggering. They reckon they average about 170 dates a year, and the current tour of the UK and The Netherlands (something like 50 dates inside two months) is testament to their stamina for the road. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that the most immediately attractive song on this new collection is a road song, Little Rock. Sung in a tone of minor key weariness, the refrain lists the far flung bits of the North American continent they trek to in their Chevy van (half a million miles or so, and counting), and, for all the weariness, the song just oozes happiness and affection for the life they’ve made for themselves. There’s a touch of genius in the line of electric guitar twang, a la Glen Campbell, that Mark Stuart drops into the song with studied understatement.

That understatement is typical of their songwriting. A lot of these songs feature an old piano that they were given, but whether it’s guitars or piano at the heart of the tune, they have a McCartney-ish gift for building beautiful melodies from the simplest elements. These are songs about the ordinary mess of life, the ups and downs, the hard times and the fun times. The song that kind of partners Little Rock at the heart of the album is called The Flag, and is not actually sung. Stacey talks her way – well, maybe she’s just on the verge of singing it – through the musings of a mother remembering her boy. She remembers all the times of caring and worrying about her boy only for him to be seduced by the army and taken away to war. They address these hard issues with the same facility that they communicate a light-hearted playfulness that is never too far away, and this makes them complete artists – you’ll laugh, you’ll cry but most importantly you’ll feel that they’re pretty much like the rest of us and just happen to be able to put ordinary experiences into song.

I have a solo album of Stacey Earle’s from about a dozen years ago that had all the qualities evident in this new album. Ever tuneful, Stacey sings in a rich accent that is a joy to listen to, whilst Mark’s tenor complements her beautifully, like two sides of the same coin. The thing I’ve been enjoying most of all on Dedication is the underlying simplicity; guitar lines that seem to flow so elegantly and easily, piano chords that follow naturally on from each other – if songwriting was as easy as these guys make it seem, we’d all be doing it.

John Davy