As an actor, Kiefer Sutherland has been a part of my cultural landscape for as long as I can remember. From a vaguely menacing presence in my childhood years when he played a bully in ‘Stand by me’, he single-handedly made vampires look cool in ‘The Lost Boys’ and introduced a whole new generation to westerns with ‘Young guns’. Over the years, he has taken on a variety of interesting roles and, like his father, his presence invariably lights up the screen. Until now, however, I had not known that Kiefer was also a talented singer and guitar player. That changed with the release of the second video and lead track from the album, ‘can’t stay away’, which appeared a month or so ago. Possessed of a soulful baritone and capable of laying down some mean riffs, Kiefer Sutherland has crafted an album that mixes beaten down country with a rich soulful blues and the results exceed all expectations.
The album opens with the aforementioned ‘Can’t stay away’. With a tough-as-nails driving bass line and rock-solid beat, it is a country-blues song with a thoroughly contemporary production that gives the music a razor-sharp edge. There’s some wicked guitar here, Kiefer and band digging into their fretboards with plenty of energy, whilst the backing vocals (reminiscent of Sam Brown’s work with David Gilmour) add just a touch of sweetness to the mix. The album continues with the breezy riff of ‘truth in your eyes’ which juxtaposes a poignant, confessional lyric with a taut beat and pedal steel guitar. It stands in the great country tradition of crafting positive out of heartache and the middle eight features some lovely guitar work. ‘I’ll do anything’ has an alt-country feel that recalls the emotionally open music of Lou Barlow who dabbled in similar musical territory (albeit in glorious lo-fi) with his Folk Implosion project. The first track to be released from the album, the pure country twang of ‘not enough whiskey’ recalls the dark folk of John Hiatt as Kiefer weaves a tale of heartbreak and loss around a rapidly emptying bottle of whiskey and, as the shades draw down, there’s just enough light left in the sky to see him slumped on the porch, haunted by the ghosts of the past. Fortunately, the sombre tone does not last, and the smart blues of ‘Going home’ appears amidst some sparking guitar riffs and a beat to which you simply have to move. The first half of the album draws to a close with the wah-inflected beauty of ‘calling out your name’, a track that is awash with the keen pain of loss but, far from being crushed in the depths, the soulful backing vocals and richly-worn chorus allow a touch of sweetness and catharsis to creep in, with the result that the song feels redemptive rather than lost.
The second half of the album opens with ‘my best friend’, a track that bids goodbye to the past and looks to a more hopeful future with gentle acoustic and piano painting a more optimistic picture than heard in the earlier stages of the album. Possibly the most traditional of all the songs on the album, ‘Shirley Jean’ is straight up country-folk that recalls the likes of the Oyster Band with its sweet slide guitar and lilting beat. The album’s astonishing highlight is the gritty blues of ‘All she wrote’ which packs schizophrenic guitars, a tough-as-nails vocal, and dark-as-molasses vocal into five near-perfect minutes. If you want to know if Kiefer Sutherland and his band can cook, this is the track to check out. The album’s title track crackles with energy, Kiefer unleashing a brilliantly gnarled riff as his confused and furious narrator tears into himself for a lifetime of perceived failure and ignominy. It’s quite a tirade and the solo flat out rocks, giving the song a vicious bite that easily matches Kiefer’s withering bark. The album returns to more acoustic pastures for the quiet closer ‘gonna die’ which ends the record on a bluesy note that matches Joe Bonamassa’s glorious take on ‘sloe gin’ for heart-on-a-sleeve honesty and simple beauty.
‘Down in a hole’ is an absolute triumph. Where some actors might engage in a musical project as a vanity project, Kiefer Sutherland is a superlative song-writer and a capable musician and these eleven songs represent the turbulent life of a world famous actor whose first instinct must surely be to shield his emotions from an ever-prying public. There is great sadness here, but there is also catharsis and hope, and Kiefer inhabits each song, making a personal record human and relatable. Like Hugh Laurie, a fellow actor who made a near-perfect transition to music, people may double-take at the instantly recognisable figure on stage before them, but Kiefer Sutherland has the skill, the depth and the presence to be judged as a musician free from the baggage of his past, and it is unarguable that ‘down in a hole’ is simply a great debut album regardless of the name that adorns its cover.
