John Ewbank is an Australian songwriter who has performed all over the world, now lives in New York City and continues to write some of the most amazing songs that you will ever hear, in any genre. 　　 　　His songs range across many styles, he's never been afraid to change and to experiment. For want of any better description you could describe his stuff as very lyric oriented songs, in styles from folk and blues to country, rock and cabaret. His songs range from very straight ahead to absolute off the wall funny, he is a master story teller and wordsmith of formidable talent. His songs stack up as an amazing body of work 　　 　　STARK RAVING SONGS is, as the title suggests, a collection of twelve of his wildest and funniest songs. The album opens with the biting satire of 'Rally Round the Flag', a stunning roller coaster of a song, set to an up-tempo country folk rhythm. The lyrics pour out, heaping scorn and ridicule on the agenda and the motives and the underlying bombast of the foreign policies of the Bush administration. 　　 　　MY STINKING OLD HEART is written in the country tradition of the abandoned lover mourning his lost love, but this time with scorn and bitterness far outweighing any of the loftier sentiments. What he really misses more than anything is his pick-up truck, that his ex. drove away in! 　　 　　THE BALLAD OF JOHNNY HODEL is a song of praise to a contemporary songwriter who lives in New York and who writes and sounds like no other; the man, the myth, the legend. He has become such a fixture or the downtown music scene, albeit an extremely eccentric one, that others have started to take him for granted. Ewbank first met Hodel in 1980, and twenty-five years later wrote him this song. Hodel may never be famous, but in this song at least he gets some of the dues he has long deserved. 　　 　　MONEY: What can you say about this one? It's relentless, ominous and true without preaching. 　　 　　THE OLDEST ROCK AND ROLLER is God of course, and here he finally gets his due. 　　 　　APRES LA REVOLUTION; A light hearted tribute to the French penchant for wanting to embrace communism while remaining at heart conservative capitalists. The more you know about French culture the funnier the song, but it's so universal that it works on many levels. 　　 　　THE TIC TOC SONG; A brilliant firework display of word power and images. 　　 　　WE'RE ALL GOING TO CROAK: Another country ballad; you can eat all the greens you want, stop drinking and live the life of a saint...but still the grim reaper will reap you...... 　　 　　MY SUV AND ME is the greatest and funniest put-down of the SUV culture ever written, period. If you hate SUVs and the obsession with bigger and bigger and bigger cars then this song will have you smiling and tapping your foot from go to whoa. 　　 　　I DON'T WANT TO COME OUT; The fetus fights back!!!! 　　 　　YOU'RE SEXY YOU ARE is an obsessional mantra of unrequieted lust, by the time the song ends you know nothing about the object of the singer's desire, but you know he is ready for the nuthouse. 　　 　　A TWO WORD LETTER Another country song with a twist or two or three... 　　 b 　　Sample the tracks and I think you'll agree that John Ewbank is a truly formidable talent in today's music scene. There are virtually no other lyricists working at such a level of commitment and intelligence, as well as sheer musicality and artistry. 　　 　　STARK RAVING SONGS is a truly great album for the early years of a century that is itself shaping up to be a stark raving century. Ewbank is a true chronicler of his times, writing love ballads that will truly touch and haunt you or satire that will entertain and energize you. You listen to his songs and you know he's been there and back and lived to tell the tale; and you get the feeling he has to tell the tale, it's not being told to fill time or take up space. Everything he writes has the urgency and clarity of the real article. 　　 　　 Ewbank is writing because, like any great artist he has no choice to do otherwise. There is no artifice to his work, you get the sense that he is truly working from a place where he has no choice but to write, no froth and bubble, no pandering to the imaginary appetites of an imaginary audience, but real work presented in the real world. If you're lucky enough to come across him take a good listen. Great writers like this don't come along very often. Ewbank is a true original, a one-man army of songs that will put your faith back in music as a force to be reckoned with.