The Great Divide Public Sector Records***

Buskers have a hard time of it: forever doomed to attack from those who look down at the gypsy aesthetic put forward by people whose only requirement for a good life is to sing. Northern Irish singer-songwriter Pat Dam Smyth once trod the busker path in Belfast and "other soggy streets in cities throughout the UK". Whatever he learned has been well rendered on his debut solo album. While finesse might be missing from The Great Divide, it's balanced by a rare kind of truthful songwriting. Across songs that wonderfully reference The Beatles, Grizzly Bear and Sufjan Stevens, Smyth reflects upon death, misused love and mental illness in a voice that is equal parts misery and merry. If it was less endearing, The Great Dividewould have been grist to the mill for gruff-songwriting naysayers. But it isn't, which means that here is music geared towards lovers of indie-pop, just ripe for the taking. See http:// tinyurl.com/patdamsmyth

Download tracks: Riches to Rags, Willows Song