Expatriate British singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding considers the format of his first album, 1989’s "It Happened One Night," to be a mistake. It was a live 17-song recording of an early solo, acoustic club show, and Harding was already moving on. "My first album should have been "It Never Happened At All" – a whole different album of I was making in 1988/89 with great musicians. . . To me, it is my alternative album from a parallel world where you can have two debut albums," he explains. Critics and listeners were impressed by "It Happened," though: Creem called it "a remarkable live debut" and Harding "a very funny, very passionate man . . .His eloquence can be gut-wrenching." The All Music Guide wrote that the CD captured Harding’s "folk roots and a wonderful sense of humor."
Now Appleseed Recordings offers a 2-CD package that should satisfy everyone: "It Happened One Night & It Never Happened At All" presents a remastered and expanded version of "It Happened One Night" (with two extra songs) plus "It Never Happened At All," a companion disc of 14 previously unreleased 1988/89 studio recordings that Wes wanted as his first release.
"It Happened One Night" presents Wes’s acerbic, keenly observant, and emotionally open songs bursting with words, humor and intensity as high-energy modern folk, whereas "It Never Happened At All" dresses some of those same songs – such as his early signature tune, "The Devil in Me" and later favorites like "Scared of Guns" and "Who You Really Are"– in arrangements ranging from Bo-Diddley-meets-Buddy Holly to folk-rock, rockabilly, C&W, and blues, as well as solo acoustic, frequently with full-band accompaniment by members of Elvis Costello’s Attractions, Lindisfarne, current solo artist Geraint Watkins and others.
Not to be missed: disc one’s "July 13 1985," a hilariously piercing look at the historic Live Aid broadcast, and two different versions of "The Devil in Me," in which Harding sardonically accepts responsibility for the world’s ill’s: "It all just seems like human behavior to me."
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