Monday February 22, 2022
Western Australian country singer-songwriter Darren Gillis’s new track, Me And You, follows a series of singles, the first of which was released in 2020. The new one is as candid and stylistically on point as it needs to be to suit the genre. However, a broader palette is used, with traces of rock, blues, and to a lesser degree, folk, and Americana.
This all makes for an intriguing blend, of course, with the added distinctive shades of Australian influences proving to be a worthwhile mix. Right from the kickoff, we have the ‘the dust’ and ‘the flies’, establishing the rural setting, the twelve-hour workday grind, the labouring and, what this song revolves around, the promise of the rewards that might follow.
But Me And Youstretches beyond promise into conviction; the narrator knows what awaits him—this is the crux of the song, there is a sense of comfort in his stated intentions, the ensuing night all sorted. Both the recipient of these intentions and the listener feel a certain sense of absolute ease about this. This ease is transposed not only by the assuredness of the lyric but also by the music itself; the performances, the instrumentation, the arrangement—and perhaps most efficiently by Gillis’s coolheaded, deep smoke twang.
For all its confidence and swaggering country evocations, it remains satisfyingly measured and non-melodramatic. As Gillis has said about the story and inspiration behind Me And You, ‘This little love story is dedicated to my girl. You know, we all have our ups and downs in life, I lost in love in recent years, and I never thought I’d love again. Along came Kate, the beautiful girl on the hay bail on the single cover.’
Inspired by artists such as Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt, and Merle Haggard, Gillis’ style is unequivocally country. To a certain extent, one can also hear the Australianness in there, but it’s the marriage of more revealing styles, a subtle blend that serves the storyteller’s purpose well.
