Firecracker (Stephen Cummings)

The Firecracker songs were chosen from a clutch of 25 written in a six week creative bender and, stylistically, they hark back to pre-Sports days with the Pelaco Brothers, when guitars twanged and singers crooned or hiccuped straight to the heart songs in the key of love or thereabouts.

A fine cast of musicians was assembled, initially in (one time Pelaco Brother) Joe Camilleri's Woodstock Studio. Once the basic tracks were done activities shifted to Shane O'Mara's Yikesville Studio in the Melbourne suburb of Yarraville, interestingly enough the suburb Stephen was brought up in.

In the engine-room, we have Peter Luscombe and Peter Jones on twin drumkits and long time cohort Bill McDonald on bass. Snout's Ross McLennan plays some Juno synth strings and supplies perky backing vocals and Rebecca Barnard also makes an appearance or two on B.V.s.

It has to be said that this is much more a guitar record than Stephen's done for some time.

Fittingly, the guitar lineup cuts across three generations and must be one of the best to appear on one record in recent years. Shane O'Mara played acoustic rhythm on an ancient Maton and his trademark melodic riffing on electric guitar is all over the Firecracker grooves. One of the bona fide legends of Australian music, Ross Hannaford of Daddy Cool, puts his own stamp of genius on several tracks, throwing in a couple of classic Hannaford solos and that funky rhythm only Ross can do. Bringing us right up to date is Chris Cheney from The Living End, a Stephen fan from way back who jumped at the chance to play on the record. Chris plays some searing guitar that's instantly memorable and reminds us that what goes around comes around.

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Stephen Cummings also released Live At Red Devil Fields 2002, Spiritual Bum, Space Travel, Love-O-Meter, Skeleton Key, Happiest Man Alive, Tickety Boo, and In The Big Room (DVD)