One for the Road

Former Faces/Small Faces bassist Ronnie Lane’s third solo album is perhaps the finest example on record of the singular charm of Lane and his post-Faces, rag tag travelling minstrel band Slim Chance. Rootsy, ramshackle and rat-arsed, Lane’s amiable bonhomie shines through every note here. For all its homespun charm and last-orders looseness, though, One For The Road only serves to highlight just what a fine songwriter the sadly departed Lane was. Opener “Don’t Try ‘n’ Change My Mind” bottled up the good time spirit of his previous band and served it up in a bar room folk band hoedown, accordion-led instrumental “Harvest Home” (recorded in a field out the back of Lane’s home and complete with the sound of birds twittering) is bucolic British folk at its most wistful and beautiful while, simply put, the title track is one of the greatest drinking songs ever written. An album that is impossible not to enjoy.