Album Review of
Last Drop of Empty

Written by Joe Ross
April 3, 2022 - 3:43pm EDT
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Last Drop of Empty is the fifth studio album from London-based Americana country singer, songwriter and guitarist Dave Sutherland who has a knack for capturing grown-up observations and sentiments wrapped in soulfully vocalized lyrics of delightfully humble expressiveness. With his songs about Life (”Damaged”), Love (“Most of the Things You Are”) and London (“Ever Changing Skyline”), I can see how Dave Sutherland would be well received at folk clubs and house concerts throughout the United Kingdom, although a track like “Money Can Do” gets a little repetitive. 

With two decades of performing and several albums under his belt, Sutherland met Grammy Award winning producer and multi-instrumentalist Stacy Parrish, who then brought Jack Casady on-board as the album’s co-producer and bassist. Last Drop of Empty has taken four years to finish up, and Sutherland’s organic music has been arranged to feature instrumental colorings behind the singer’s profoundly earthy, rough-hewn vocals and warm-hearted sentiments on tracks like “Ghosts” and “One True Love.” 

Other guests include Gunnar Frick (accordion, piano, pedal steel), Ross Garren (harmonica), Isaiah Gage (cello). Moa Drugge and Julian Leben’s harmony vocals on the lively title track, “Down to the Last Drop of Empty” make that stand out, as well as those songs that evocatively speak nostalgically of home and remembrances from his uniquely UK Americana perspective, “Ever Changing Skyline,” “From the Vauxhall Tavern to the Deptford Broadway,” and “Yorkshire Grey.” (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)