There’s something about the night air …
A sense of anticipation as the city comes to life. The sky aglow with bright lights. That tingling feeling you get when you know that something exciting is about to happen.
As Springsteen sang, “Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night.”
Welcome to Michael Meeking’s new album, The Night Air.
In the midst of a Melbourne lockdown, Michael started writing the follow-up to his acclaimed 2019 album, November ’72. “I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to write,” he admits. “But I knew that I didn’twant to write songs that were slow and depressing.”
Producer Roger Bergodaz (Raised By Eagles, Lost Ragas, Tex Perkins, Suzannah Espie) was on the same page. When he met Michael to discuss the new record, he said one simple sentence:
“You’ve done the country thing, let’s rock.”
So, Michael tuned up his electric guitars, turned up the amps, and rocked out.
The result is the finest album of his career. As Americana UK noted, Michael Meeking possesses “the rock swagger of The Faces, only more refined and performed better”.
The characters in The Night Air have been beaten down and bruised, but they’re still standing, “dancin’ to the radio”, looking for “one more chance”, knowing that “your sweet lovin’ touch” will “carry us through”.
And – with a nod to the classic American songwriters, such as Springsteen and Tom Petty – Michael has given them a rousing bunch of songs that will make them forget their troubles for a while, where sunshine is wrapped up in a guitar riff that just won’t quit.
And before you know it, The Night Air has become ‘Another Day’. And they’ll get up and do it all over again.
“Not only a gifted songwriter and performer, the hard-working Michael Meeking is one of the genuinely decent people floating around in this thing called the music industry” – Neil Rogers, Triple R
