mermaids
Mermaids the 1999 debut release from the Australian based guitarist and singer inhabits a realm between Dylan at his moodiest, The Pogues at their jumpin'est and Ry Cooder at his pickin'est, Stephen Lomas has produced a 
coherent and engaging CD of original songs and instrumentals.
Long time ex-pat and recent re-pat Australian Lomas recorded this offering in California in 1999. It is however undeniably Australian in character and subject with themes including Anzac Day and the Southern Cross. There is often an Irish lilt to his easy finger style guitar playing that shifts deftly into the familiar strains of Click Go the Shears and Moreton Bay. It is in his songs such as the opener No Night for Lovers and Wigram Road that Lomas drifts into a Dylanesque landscape of image and imagination, inhabiting a zone that is at times edgy and brooding with instrumentation echoing the organ/guitar arrangements of The Band in their prime.
These darker moods are lightened by tracks such as Up All Night, Mermaids and Spinnin' that hop along at a bright and lively pace on a road somewhere between Alice and Anaheim. Lomas also delivers beautifully rendered solo guitar interpretations of traditional Celtic Australian classics such as Moreton Bay and a medley of traditional tunes dubbed Southern Cross. Exhibiting a crisp, lyrical style, he captures the melancholy mood of these pieces, creating space in and around his playing in which to set his gentle phrasing adrift.
All You Sinners shifts from a brooding introduction with strains of Ed Kuepper into a rollicking jig that would have the any Pogues fan kicking the air. Lomas' guitar playing provides the spine from which he hangs his compositions. His easy and comfortable finger styles at times give way to swampy slide and full tilt raunch. His vocals mesh effortlessly with his playing exhibiting a soulful and enviable marriage of talent and skill. - review by Michael Shrapnel for indie-cds.com 2006
"Up All Night... Nice acoustic guitar sound & production. Overall, production strikes me as very pro. The more I listen to garageband the more I notice how that makes an enormous difference. The vocals are somewhat Dylan & Lou Reed. The Up All Night part is a good hook. The vocals/lyrics could use a little refinement, but I think the spoken style works well in this song." - Phil, Texas - Garageband.com (4 Sep 2005)
