More Lunch at Allen’s a tasty musical treat

By Doug Gallant

The new record boasts 12 songs, some of which, like Try Walkin’ Away, Runaway Heart and Sweeping The Spotlight Away, you may be familiar with if you’ve followed the careers of these artist for any period of time.

Others are relatively new, although you may have heard them performed live if you’ve seen Lunch at Allen’s play during the last year or so.

It’s a very solid mix, one that accurately reflects the diversity of their collective interests. There are pop songs, country songs, folksy pieces and rootsy bits.

Each of the artists involved tallied for three songs, most written as solo pieces or co-written with other songwriters outside the quartet.

Church’s contributions, for example, include material co-written with Susan Crowe and two of her collaborators from Quartette, Gwen Swick and Sylvia Tyson.

Jordan’s offerings include co-writes with Anthony Vanderburgh, John Capek and Chris Bilton, while MacLauchlan’s entries include a co-write with Alan Rhody.

Anything But Friends, co-written by McLauchlan and Church, is the only internal collaboration.

The arrangements — with the exception of the arrangement of Sweeping The Spotlight Away which pales in comparison with McLauchlan’s original arrangement — are great and the instrumental work is solid throughout.

Vocally, everybody is on top of their game, Church in particular. Some of the harmonies, like those on I Never Got Over You and Runaway Heart are gorgeous.

Autumn is upon us and the weather has begun to nip at out heels. More Lunch at Allen’s is one of those records that will take the chill off.

Choice offerings on this set include Runaway Heart, You Can, I’ll Let You KNOW, New York Snow, Try Walkin’ Away and Anything But Friends.