Blue Hour by Mal MacWatt & The Glass Mountains

‘Blue Hour’ is the first of two EPs from the same recording session with MacWatt reviving his side project The Glass Mountains to distinguish his roots rock-based material from his solo acoustic celtic folk output.

The Blue Hour is the brief period just before dawn and just after the sun sets - the twilight zone. The EP is about being alone with your thoughts at the witching hour, too tired to party but too wired to sleep. With so much regret, repentance and reflection in the songs, producer Phil Dearing insisted on a darker, more gritty sound by distilling the country-soul elements of ‘Dial It Back’ and condensing them down into a more focused roots rock offering.

“As the songs came together in the studio they naturally seemed to fall into two distinct camps - half with a strong soul feel and half that were much more country,” explains MacWatt. “Initially I thought about trying to integrate them into one album by blurring the edges but it felt more honest to just let the songs take whatever direction suited them best.”

To that end ‘Blue Hour’ fuses electric piano, Hammond organ and horns with bluesy guitars and a classic rock rhythm section. MacWatt wears his 70s roots rock heart on his sleeve with influences from The Stones, Gram Parsons, Van Morrison and The Band oozing out of the arrangements.

'Twilight' - the second EP from the session, featuring London singer-songwriter Clare Portman - will be released in March 2021.

“MacWatt will doubtless be considered among the best of the new breed of folksingers and songwriters, who speak of the past as a way to perhaps understand it and move forward” Stephen Rapid, Lonesome Highway

“He shines as a singer and he shines as an interpreter of the eternal folk songbook,” Tom Brosseau, The Great American Folk Show, North Dakota

malcolmmacwatt.com