Thursday, January 19, 2017

Colin Hay delivers ‘Fierce Mercy’

at his upcoming Homer show
Colin Hay, the former
leader of Men at Work, will
perform a solo show at the
Center for the Arts in Hom-
er at 8 p.m. Friday.
Hay is familiar to mil-
lions as the songwriter and
vocalist on Men at Work
hits from the 1980s such as
“Down Under,” “Overkill”
and “Who Can it Be Now?”
But since moving to Los
Angeles in 1989, he’s made
more than a dozen critically
acclaimed solo albums,
including the highly suc-
cessful “Man at Work.”
Over the past 15 years
Hay has reinvented himself
as a solo artist, regularly
selling out theaters and
listening rooms across the
U.S. and around the world
and introducing himself to a
new generation of fans in
the process.
“I started off playing
go!
IF YOU GO
» Who: Colin Hay
» When: 8 p.m. Friday
» Where: Center for the Arts, 72
S. Main St., Homer
» Tickets: $35-$40
» Info: center4art.org, 749-4900
» More info:
www.colinhay.com
proven the timeless appeal
of his songs.
His next album, “Fierce
Mercy,” to be released
March 3, is touted as an
epic, cinematic step for-
ward Recorded in both Los
Angeles and Nashville,
“Fierce Mercy” explores
themes of love and loss,
mortality, and even the odd
UFO sighting, but always

acoustic; it’s my natural with the singular perspec-

game, if you will,” he said.
“It’s the point I started from
and may well be the point I
end with. It’s always what I
return to.”
The frequent use of
Hay’s music in television
and film — including hit
shows such as “Scrubs” (on
which he has made several
cameo appearances),
“Army Wives” and “Modern
Family,” the hit soundtrack
to the film “Garden State”
and the recently released
“Words and Pictures” — has
tive and insightful wit that
define Hay’s work. He has
created a new classic in his
impressive repertoire (this
is his 13th solo release),
using a palette of pop song-
craft, Americana flour-
ishes, and soundtrack-ready
strings. “Fierce Mercy” is
animated by its pensive,
honest, and impassioned
lyrics, and, Hay adds, by a
sense of urgency felt deeply
in the song “The Last to
Know,” which introduces
the album’s title concept of
PROVIDED
Colin Hay performs Friday night at the Center for the Arts in Homer.

“fierce mercy.” at the Edinburgh Fringe; ers of Mastodon, and The

“When you’re in your
20s, you think you’ve got all
the time in the world,” Hay
said in a press release. “You
16 • Press & Sun-Bulletin
performances on The To- Infamous Stringdusters; as
night Show With Jimmy well as the completion of a
Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel documentary film about his
Live! and ABC’s Greatest career titled “Waiting for

get older, and you go
through a quickening. Ev-
erything seems to get fast-
er.”
Though many music fans
will be glad to see the end of
2016, it was something of a
breakout year for Hay,
including a three-week run
NY-0000792360
Hits; sharing the stage with
Of Monsters and Men, Milk
Carton Kids, Choir Choir
Choir!, Kings of Leon; being
publicly cited as an influ-
ence by artists as distinct as
James Hetfield of Metal-
lica, Jeremiah Fraites of
The Lumineers, Troy Sand-
My Real Life,” named for
one of his best known solo
recordings. Now finding
himself in the unprecedent-
ed place of having both ’80s
fame and indie credibility,
it's possible that Hay has
delivered the defining al-
bum of his solo career.