Album Review: Phil Gammage 'Used Man For Sale'

Phil Gammage  returns with a new album, Used Man for Sale, which features ten original, self-penned compositions that focus on honest songwriting, stripped down recordings, and a bluesy, roots-based style.

Produced by Kevin Tooley and recorded in New York, the project begins with “Arms of a Kind Woman” which, with its bluesy noir melody focuses on the idea that a certain woman can offer salvation. The gentle guitar and piano on “Maybe Tomorrow” shines with optimism while “I Beg of You” carries a lounge bar feel in a narrative about a man who is at home caring for a child while his woman is “running wild.”

The album also includes the title track, about a man whose dreams are all gone, the ominous “Ride with Railroad Bill,” the darkly hypnotic “Before I Leave,” and “Feeling the Hurt” which begins with one feeling “like dirt” before finding hope and starting to live again.

Used Man for Sale utilizes a shuffle on, “Tenderloin," an interesting tale of San Francisco and ups the tempo on the jaunty “Lost in Loserville” before returning to the harmonica-laden blues, closing out with the looseness of “Staring Out Our Window.” For more information visit his official website. 

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