Cape Breton troubadour Danny MacNeil is quickly becoming one of our favourite singer-songwriters. His confessional style of lyricism sung with a vibrato over a contrasting minimalism of banjo and piano that might be compared to legendary blues player Blind Willie Johnson, give or take a century. His newest single, “Trouble That I’m In,” is a quintessential love song and the sudden realization that you’re in deep.
MacNeil explains it best himself in the first line of the song: “Was too scared to tell you then” – that heady moment when you’re carried off on the first waves of love and hope to hell it’s mutual.
As MacNeil tells it, “Trouble that I’m In” came about after MacNeil, having just recently met the love of his life, visited her parents. It must have been written all over his face, because his dad took a look at him and said, “You look like you’re in trouble, Dan,” to which Danny quickly replied, “I feel like I’m in trouble.”
It’s a barebones song, where quality far outweighs the quantity. With a simple tune, MacNeil puts all the weight of the punch on the few lyrics there are, counting on that message to hit home. Fortunately, “Trouble That I’m In” just nails it.
Featuring Molly Babin on piano, John Gill on banjo, Dillan Tate (The Stanfields) on guitar and Michael Ryan (The Town Heroes) on vocals, “Trouble That I’m In” was recorded with Michael S. Ryan at his studio, Hot Jupiter Sounds.
The celebrate the release of the new single, MacNeil y will be playing a songwriters circle, along with fellow Cape-Breton singer-songwriters Molly Babin and Rudy Pace at the Frolic’n Folk Pub located in the Iona Heights Hotel on Friday, November 20th.
MacNeil is in the process of finding up his upcoming album at Hot Jupiter Sounds with Michael S. Ryan. As MacNeil and Ryan are still recording, his forthcoming album remains shrouded in mystery, with no release date yet in sight.