release date: Oct. 24, 1993
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,12]
producer: Robert Forster
label: Beggars Banquet - nationality: Australia
2nd studio album by Robert Forster following nearly three full years after his acclaimed debut Danger in the Past (Nov. 1990). In this period, he began a new life in Germany with German musician Karin Bäumler, and he produced the second album for Bäumler's band Baby You Know. This is the first album with Forster as sole producer after having co-produced albums with his former band, The Go-Betweens. All compositions are credited Forster, who is joined by a handful of new backing band musicians, most of which play in the Brisbane country-rock band COW [abbr. for "Country or Western"] including drummer Glenn Thompson, who should later play with Forster as solo artist and on releases with the reformed The Go-Betweens. The country-style comes through on many of the songs here, despite the fact that Forster had already written the songs before joining with his new crew. It may still be indie pop and singer / songwriter but there's the typical slide and picking of guitar-sound on most tracks, which adds a country / western-feel to the album, and hence the title.
Calling From a Country Phone gained positive reviews but I don't really concede to that. I enjoy his solo debut, which seems quite original, and here you still notice his songwriting skills, whereas the music score doesn't distinguish Forster from many of his idols of the 1960s and early '70s because of the bold use of country-styled arrangements, but I guess that's only a matter of preferences, and then I'm not a country-kind-of-a-person.
