The Ballachulish Hellhounds. Red Eye’s Motorcycle Blues.

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More homegrown Americana this time from the well kent (if you frequented The Captain’s Rest or attended any Scottish “bijoux” festivals over the past few years) Ballachulish Hellhounds. The Hellhounds are another band in thrall to old time American music and live they whip up a storm. Their debut album in 2010, Songs from The Great Atlantic Ocean was a fine mix of traditional and self penned songs that celebrated the long standing connection between the folk traditions of the old and new worlds. Our only quibble with the album was that it seemed a mite thin in the production failing to quite capture the energy and sparkle of their live shows. No problems this time around as Red Eye’s Motorcycle Blues positively jumps out of the speakers with a fire in its belly.
With six songs and only available as a digital download this mini album is intended to bridge the gap between the release of their debut and their next all original long player (promised for next year). One thinks the Hellhounds are short-changing themselves here as it stands up to scrutiny while promising much for the next album. In particular the title song, written by the band, is a fine tale of a farm boy itching to join some motorcycle rebels and failing. Delivered with a sly drawled vocal from Zander McFarlane it has a jaunty old time country feel and one can imagine Ry Cooder or Mike Wilhelm having great fun with this. Iron Horse/Born To Lose which, believe it or not, is a cover of a Motorhead song is the other stand out here. In the absence of power amps the Hellhounds drench the song in swathes of acoustic guitar in a melancholy mode with a sixties Byrds type feel although its not the jingle jangle Byrds, more like David Crosby’s internal meanderings.
The remainder of the album is of a traditional nature. Long Gone and Rabbit In A Log are fast and furious with the banjo and mandolin frantically flailing away. Lonesome Without You is a Carter family type singalong. Expertly delivered it recalls the likes of The Louvin Brothers and other greats of country music tradition. Bury Me Beneath The Willow which closes the disc is another old time tune which has been recorded by everyone and his uncle and the Hellhounds deliver a great version with some great solos on Dobro and mandolin but overall it’s the ensemble playing and fine harmonising that show that they truly capture the essence of old time Americana. All in all a great little album.
You can buy the album here

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Dan Stuart

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The great Dan Stuart is among us again. The voice of Green On Red and one half of the fabled bar band Danny and Dusty Stuart barnstormed and howled his way into our consciousness as part of the burgeoning California post punk roots movement back in the eighties. A bunch of young bucks, Green On Red crawled from Tucson to L. A. and released a crop of albums that owed as much to the sixties sound of The Seeds as it did to Hank Williams. Always teetering on the edge they fell over it when the band imploded with Stuart keeping a low profile for several years afterwards. Successful reunions of Green On Red and Danny and Dusty around 2006-7 saw him in fine fettle but again he retired from sight until now. Teaming up with Sacri Cuori who are very simpatico Stuart returns in the guise of Marlowe Billings on his latest release. Delivering a set of songs that may be autobiographical (although as with much of his mythology it’s cloaked in layers of mystery) his voice remains strained and compelling, second only to Jeffrey Lee Pierce. Who is Marlowe Billings and what is his relationship with the mysterious author of the Treasure of The Sierra Madre? We don’t know but Dan was kind enough to take the time to respond by email to a couple of questions we threw his way just before his Glasgow gig..

So who is Marlowe Billings and where do you fit in?

Me and Marlowe Billings? We try to accommodate one another, although we have competing narratives. He thinks he’s smarter than me… there’s a book as well with the same title for those that still can read. I’m lucky now cause I get to play a lot with a great band (Sacri Cuori) but I’m not actually in one. Bands are replacements for one’s family of origin which seldom are happy… bands are often worse.

What are your biggest influences and your most significant moment?

I could reply with a laundry list of the agreed upon canon but really “Blonde on Blonde” ain’t that big of a deal… or “Pet Sounds” for that matter. Of course I love Dylan and Brian but musicians are generally completely full of shit when it comes to what’s “good” or “bad”. Jimmy Cliff recently told an interviewer that he had been listening to Katy Perry… I thought that was hilarious. As for a significant moment, surviving when my brain broke…

What venue/gig do you most want to play?

The old places I used to play filled with sullen kids who hate the world. Now I have to play some roots venue with clean bathrooms of all things. How the mighty have fallen…

What is your favourite song you have written?

There’s a couple I’m proud of… Vivian Girls covering “Sixteen Ways” was a special treat.

What does the next six months have in store for you?

Playing Europe this fall, enjoying life and writing in Oaxaca, a west coast swing in the USA, maybe I’ll even get laid…

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Either walking the streets of San Felipe Del Agua or resting in its panteón… whatever Juquila decides.

Any recent sounds you might want to recommend that would gladden our ears?

Both my old compadre Chuck Prophet and his buddy John Murry have released great records recently… Sacri Cuori has a record coming out next month called “Rosario” that is fantastic. “Venice Dawn” by Adrian Younge is intriguing…

And intriguing is one way of describing The Deliverance Of Marlowe Billings, Dan’s new album. Backed by the Italian band Sacri Cuori Stuart is in fine voice while the songs are for the most part superb with a couple of killers inside. I’ve reviewed the album at Americana UK while you can check out Dan’s website

The Kingmakers. Last Night In Nashville.

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The Kingmakers are yet another Canadian group who have picked up the baton of Americana and carried it over the 49th parallel. However unlike the majority of acts we’ve reviewed here who delve into bluegrass, singer/songwriter musings or country music The Kingmakers are unashamedly rockabilly and proud of the retro tag that comes with this. So proud in fact that they’ve recorded in the Sun Studios in Memphis in the past and on this, their third album, shifted to Nashville to record the album at Cowboy Jack Clement’s studio, Clement being the man who recorded and produced much of Jerry Lee Lewis’ Sun output. In addition they’ve persuaded The Jordonaires to sing on a few of the songs while JM Van Eaton, Jerry Lee’s drummer joins in on the fun.
First thing to say is that this is great fun. Pump up the speakers and pretty soon it’s difficult to stay seated as they run through some amped up rockers and swingingly good fifties teen toe tappers. With only one cover, Van Eaton’s Memphis In ’55, their songs, mainly written by bass player Steve Donnelly, have an authentic touch that we’ve not heard since The Blasters announced their mission to reclaim American music. Indeed the opener Well Well Michelle and Johnny Green could sit comfortably on a Blasters album while Beale St. Memphis TN Morning After Blues, a deliciously loose and slinky blues number has the Alvin brothers stamped all over it. To show however that they are no mere copyists the band have a fine zydeco influenced number in Women and Weather while Prom Night Car Crash is a great Johnny Tillotson type death song. Great fun.

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Coyote Grace Now Take Flight.

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A Seattle based trio Coyote Grace began as a duo busking at the famous Pike Place Fish Market while more recently their profile was raised on several tours in the States supporting the Indigo Girls. Now Take Flight, their fifth album, certainly supports their claim to wider acclaim packed as it is with some fine playing and above all excellent songs. The trio (Joe Stevens, Ingrid Elizabeth and Michael Connolly) impress with some fantastic harmonies while Stevens and Elizabeth both have distinctive and attractive voices. The overall sound is not too far removed from the likes of Larkin Poe, Old Crow Medicine Show or indeed the Indigo Girls themselves. Acoustic based with plenty of frills in the shape of mandolin, banjo, ukulele, accordion and fiddle these are not country songs but a very pleasant set of intelligent songs that have a radio friendly approach that would please those whose idea of roots music is the Avett Brothers.
The main strength here however is in the songwriting. Stevens produces several gems including the delicate Flowers and the superb These Gray Days which captures perfectly the feel of winter malaise and which features some very impressive upright bass playing by Connolly. Elizabeth is no slouch in the songwriting stakes although she favours an earthier touch which is apparent in the bluesy stroll of Born Blind while she gets downright dirty on the slinky organ driven Kansas which manages to reference the Wizard of Oz on a tale of a groupie chasing her chosen star. Fact is all of these songs are great including a choice cover of Springsteen’s I’m On Fire. Well recommended.

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Old Dollar Bill. Lucky From Kentucky.

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It was Neil Young who sang “ Homegrown is the way it should be. Homegrown is a good thing. Plant that bell and let it ring.” Old Neil might have been singing about something else altogether (answers on a postcard!) but it’s gratifying to find that there’s a good deal of homegrown bands and songsters in the best wee nation in the world who can take on Americana type music and deliver their own take on it with a degree of authenticity but more importantly portraying their feeling and affection for the genre.
Bands such as The Wyntown Marshals, Dropkick, The Ballchulish Hellhounds and the late lamented Southpaw are all fine examples of Scots bands who can deliver the real thing and the list can be expanded almost ad infinitum if one looks at the likes of Teenage Fanclub and The Vaselines who exported the proverbial coals to Newcastle.
Old Dollar Bill are a grand addition to the local canon of Scots combos who can summon up a genuine feel for American music. In their case it’s old time good time stringband hoe-downs and rollicking country songs. Their debut album was as fine a piece of Scots Americana as we’ve heard in a long time and now on their second release Lucky From Kentucky they consolidate their sound, relying less on their undoubted instrumental prowess with the inclusion of several fine songs that broaden their appeal.
Comprised of Stephen Clark (guitar, mandolin, banjo and Dobro) and Ed Henry (Cajon, drums and percussion) (supplemented by Edinburgh musicians Martyn McQuade on double bass, Neil Pearlman, piano, Tom McAweaney, fiddle, Owen McAlpine, harmonica and Gill Swan, harmony vocals on various cuts) Old Dollar Bill cut a fine cloth with ten songs all self written that range from the swamp blues of My Love She Did Wear A Disguise to the triumphant closing good time swing of Lucky From Kentucky. My Love she Did Wear A Disguise is a great opener with Clark snarling a tale of betrayal that cleaves to a folk tradition but with the menacing Dobro and clattering percussion relocates it to a swamp ridden murky voodoo land. One More Shot To Kill The Pain is a straightforward country stomp with fine harp and piano playing with the lyrics appearing to portray a typical Edinburgh bar although there’s no hard drinking “Rebus” type detective propping up the bar along with the unemployed graduate and the war veteran. The Man With The Hurtin’ Smile slinks along gracefully with some nice Dobro and mandolin fills while McQuade’s bass burbles along nicely. Henry takes over the vocals on the heartworn tale of a John fleeced by a pretty girl and excusing her as he says “I see the pain in her eyes/where she’s cut off social ties/she doesn’t look too well/she’s living in her own little hell.” This is a great little song with expressive harmonica, intricate percussion and excellent guitar, Dobro and mandolin; it’s reminiscent of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band circa Hollywood Dream which is no bad thing. The Place is another roustabout country ditty while Hey Y’all plants the fiddle firmly in the foreground for what is a fiercely danceable hoe-down. Clark returns to the fore vocally on the fine This Feeling with his mandolin propelling the band as Henry’s percussion adds to the drive. The Last Good Time is a departure of sorts for the band as they rein in the toe tapping vibes and deliver an emotive ballad that has rippling piano and female harmony vocals. It comes across almost like a Bruce Cockburn type song, plaintive and affecting it sounds great here. Home Lovin’ Man which follows seems to be another attempt to add an extra dimension to the band. A pared back stumble with emotive harmonica it has a fine lazy feel but the intrusive finger clicks that feature throughout are somewhat distracting. They close the album with the title song (aided and abetted by Woody Pines and members of The Wilders). Lucky From Kentucky is a barnstorming closer that must go down a storm live with its opportunities for the singers and instrumentalists to add to the energy that is already present on the recorded version. Old Dollar Bill play regularly in the drinking dens of Edinburgh and on the strength of this should be seen well before any ghost tours.

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Malcolm Holcombe. Down The River

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Slowly but surely North Carolina bred singer and songwriter Malcolm Holcombe has carved a reputation over the years as a fine purveyor of rootsy country blues with his albums and live shows almost universally praised. Despite this he remains a bit of a hidden gem, known only to the cognoscenti but there’s a chance this might change with the release of this, his ninth album.
Having been on several labels (including Geffen who refused to release the album he recorded for them) he’s self released Down The River and it’s a measure of the respect he’s held in that he’s gathered a grand set of musicians to assist him. The band include Darrell Scott, Ken Coomer and Viktor Krauss while vocals are supplied by Kim Richey, Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle. In addition the album is produced by Steve Earle’s sometime producer Ray Kennedy. The result is a stellar collection of songs that feature Holcombe’s amazing growl of a voice and his deft guitar picking with truckloads of banjo, steel guitar, mandolin, fiddle and Dobro backing him up. The effect is very similar to that of Earle’s “come back” album Train A Coming.
In addition to the excellent playing Holcombe writes with a fine sense of anger at the modern ways of the world railing against injustice but also celebrating the eternal optimism of the human spirit most pointedly in The Crossing, one of the more tender songs here. With some fine lilting fiddle this is a beautiful spiritual lament. The Door continues in this vein as Holcombe reins in his voice while pedal steel (by Russ Pahl) glides and weaves. Both of these songs are cloaked in mystery as Holcombe sings of people who seem to be lost and desolate but who are buttressed by hope and pride. The starkness of The Empty Jar is the culmination of this; delicate guitar and viola paint a lonely picture as Holcombe sings “an empty jar but full of eyes/ that see you here pourin’ perfect comfort /for thirsty silent tears.” The effect is similar to the grim determination seen in the photography of Dorothea Lange. The duet with Emmylou Harris In Your Mercy is lighter in its delivery but again tells of an abandoned soul clinging to pride and memories.
All of these songs are beautiful and had the album stuck with this style it would be very impressive indeed. However Holcombe adds a topping of righteous indignation and launches his full bear growl on a clutch of songs that damn those in control who cause misery and loss. Butcher In Town opens the album like a boxer jumping out on the bell. Darrell Scott’s Dobro is excellent here as Holcombe proclaims “I don’t claim a thing/not a two bit clue/but somebody whispered/war kills the truth” while on Twisted Arms he almost spits out the words. Whitewash Job nails the politicians with an undisguised glee with Holcombe sounding not unlike Baby Gramps with his piratical “har hars” over a fine chugging rhythm. The duet with Steve Earle, Trail O’ Money is the most direct diatribe as Holcombe declares “all the noise from the crowd/breakin’ hearts with deceit/all you war hungry bastards/bloodthirsty with greed.” Despite the vitriol in the words the song itself is a wonderful recreation of the sound of Bob Dylan circa 1970 with lonesome harp and a nice country lope. Holcombe sums up the album and his thoughts on the closing title song, a fine old fashioned number with female backing vocals and an uplifting beat as he sings “the hard times makes us stronger to get by/and leave this world behind/down the river.”

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Dan Stuart and Sacri Cuori. King Tuts Wah Wah Hut. Wed. 5th September.

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Dan Stuart, former wild frontman of Green On Red has been sadly missing from action for several years. Despite occasional sightings in the mid 2000’s with (successful) reunions of Green On Red and Danny and Dusty there’s only been the occasional low key album release. A few months back a new release The Deliverance of Marlowe Billings was announced and then a European tour which mercifully included Glasgow on the short itinerary.
And so it was that a few of the faithful (too few by far) gathered in the bar at King Tuts to see and hear the enigmatic Stuart, lured by the legend and perhaps somewhat nonplussed by the recent stories of his incarceration and subsequent escape from a New York psychiatric institution, his settlement in Oaxaca, Mexico and his current hook up with an Italian country rock band.
Sacri Cuori played a short opening set and immediately it was clear that country rock does them a grave injustice. A four piece they unveiled an astounding palette of sounds that ranged from surf and Duane Eddy type guitar to Nino Rota cinematic whirls with Joe Meek electronica and superb percussion to take the audience on a trip through some weird places and left us feeling as if we were in the middle of Jodorowsky’s El Topo. Guitarist Antonio Gramentieri tackled the introductions informing us that local girl Isobel Campbell sings on their latest album Rosario and pretty much had us eating out of his hand by the end of their all too short set.
Mr. Stuart then came on and within a few minutes of his superb, humorous (with some barbed stabs at a few sacred alt country cows) introduction any possible doubts about his mental health were dispelled. Revelling in his banter he was a hit before even striking a note but it was clear from his opening song, a solo rendition of an old Green On Red song, Death and Angels, that he was totally in control. Delivered as a lament with his voice a warm croon and some fine guitar picking it was miles away from the old band version. Another Green On Red song You Couldn’t Get Arrested with Stuart joined by Christian Ravaglioli on accordion was next and it was spellbinding. A sly dig at Mick Jagger and his abandonment of his sixties Chelsea drug store decadence one could have heard the proverbial pin drop as the audience paid full attention; we could have listened to the solo Stuart all night. From here on in however Stuart bared his fangs and with the assistance of Sacri Cuori delivered a blistering set of tunes, old and new that featured his sardonic and sneering vocals while also offering a glimpse into his love and passion for Spanish and Mexican tinged ballads with an edge. Sixteen Ways kicked it off while amped up renditions of Zombie For Love and Gravity Talks showed that he still has some fire in his belly. Two Lovers Waiting to Die swung mightily with a heavy Neil Young swagger.

Along with the back catalogue Stuart unveiled several songs from the new album with What Are You Laughing About ? delivered almost like a Joe Strummer thrash, fittingly enough as it’s a translation of a poem by Mario Benedetti, a Uruguayan poet who had to flee right wing political persecution, Strummer would approve. Gringo Go Home utilised the exotic sounds of Sacri Cuori to their utmost as Stuart channelled Lee Hazlewood on what appears to a satire on the perceived dangerousness of Mexico for visitors while on Clean White Sheet the Joe Meek type organ exhilarated as the band went stratospheric towards the end.

Overall Stuart seems to a man at the top of his game, proud of his past and rightly proud of the new material, if you get a chance to see him then we would heartily recommend it.

We should mention the two local opening acts. Eilidh Hadden and her band were a nice whispy folk tinged crew with Hadden using a tape loop at times to multiply her guitar playing while Danielle Tonner delivered a solo set of covers and some of her own songs. Both acts delivered their material in good Scots voices, something we seem to be seeing more of these days.

Leyla Fences. Itty Bitty Twang Twang

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Honky Tonk Heaven says the press release and for once we believe it as it was Blabber’n’Smoke who said it. We loved Leyla’s first album, Liars, Cheats and Fools back in 2010 with its gritty mix of tough talking attitude and the excellent honky tonk delivery likening it to an aural equivalent of Thelma and Louise (without the fatalistic ending however). Two years later Fences springs back into action with Itty Bitty Twang Twang (presumably punning on that movie about the flying car, at least it’s restricted to the album’s name with no song in sight). For anyone who has heard its predecessor there’s nothing here that will surprise but there’s plenty to delight as she tears through a solid collection of songs that define and refine Texan honky tonk music from a woman’s perspective.
Vocally in command at all times with her slightly nasal twang Fences is admirably served by her backing band with some great playing. The guitars bite and the piano rolls while the pedal steel sweeps and soars. Fiddle and mandolin add colour here and there, overall they’re a pretty rocking combo. Her writing has come on leaps and bounds and there’s a couple of songs here that could and should become standards. All of the songs are about the male/female struggle with Fences writing from the woman’s point of view. She is in turn bitter, triumphant, sad, yearning and vengeful as her characters go through all sorts of emotions while suffering from the slings and arrows of deceitful men who drink, cheat and in the case of Trophy Wife remake her via plastic surgery and dentistry into a real life Barbie. Fences successfully portrays a sense of poor self esteem in Something Right and Pain Relief and captures the lengths some woman go to in order to keep a relationship going on We’ll Just Figure It Out. However she celebrates those hardy characters who stand up for themselves and say enough is enough on I’ll Stop My Whining, Pretty Lies and Too Far Gone. She excels on The Next Time which is a classic country ballad in the Tammy Wynette mode. Beautifully delivered it takes some time to realise that the heroine is being advised to soup up her lovemaking in order to keep her man. Almost as good and grand enough to earn the honky tonk heaven accolade is One More Honky Tonk where drinking is seen as the salve to recover from a failed relationship. Classic in its delivery Fences throws in a nice euphemism as she sings
I get dressed up but you hardly look/Opening my door? /I guess that’s a thing of the past/Yeah, that honeymoon was sure over fast.
Overall this is a great album for anyone who digs the likes of Wayne “The Train” Hancock, Loretta Lynn or even Tammy Wynette. Leyla Fences lives and breathes this music it seems and tops it up with a fine, sassy and at times barbed feminist slant. Great stuff.

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One More Honky Tonk

Various Artists. Electric Eden.

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Blabber’n’Smoke received a copy of Rob Young’s exhaustive history of, for want of a better term, British alternative folk and folk rock, Electric Eden last Christmas. As a long time listener of the likes of the extended Fairport Convention family tree, John Martyn, Nick Drake, Pentangle at al we devoured the book wondering at the vastness of it all and greedily devouring via Spotify and YouTube numerous artists we’d either forgotten about or had never heard in the first place. Young uses the early chapters to explore the late 19th and early 20th Century roots of the folk revival in some detail to advance his thesis that this ties in with a uniquely British innate desire to return to and commune with a bucolic faerie fuelled past. He then tops off the book with a look at the likes of Kate Bush and Julian Cope in the eighties but the meat of the book is in the blossoming of a new type of folk, fuelled by the beatnik, hippie and rock movements of the 50s to the 70s. As a true companion to the book this album would have been required to be a box set of some sumptuous proportions, sadly it is not so however Young has compiled a fine primer which manages to balance familiar and obscure relics of the highwater years from 1966-1979.
With the two discs subtitled “Acoustic Eden” and “Electric Albion” there’s a rough division between those bands and artists who upheld more traditional sounds and those who plugged in and with drums, bass and a rock’n’roll heart. A mite misleading as some of the electric songs are much more traditional than the acoustic ones with Comus (acoustic) scary as hell and Shirley Collins & The Albion Country Band (electric) sounding as if they were conjured from a Thomas Hardy novel. That quibble aside the 36 songs here capture the spirit of adventure and daring that allowed such songs as Tim Hart and Maddy Prior’s False Knight On The Road to rub shoulder to shoulder with prog and Krautrock on the late John Peel’s radio shows. While the likes of Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson, Pentangle, John Martyn and Steeleye Span are well represented here the real thrill is in hearing names that have been thrown up as influences by the freak folk crowd but are rarely represented on compilations. Thus Bill Fay, Peter Bellamy, Meic Stevens, COB, Shelagh McDonald, Mick Softley, Trees and even our very own Archie Fisher (with a wonderful rendition of Reynardine complete with sitar) are offered a moment in the sun with around a dozen others. Even David Bowie gets in here with Black Country Rock. Nicely packaged with liner notes by Young it’s an engaging trip down a mystic country lane for those who remember those times and a great place to start for anyone wanting to dig deep into what the likes of Devandra Banhart is on about.

Tracklist

CD1
ACOUSTIC EDEN
1. Peter Bellamy – ‘Oak, Ash and Thorn’
2. Traffic – ‘John Barleycorn Must Die’
3. Bert Jansch – ‘The Waggoner’s Lad’
4. Fairport Convention – ‘Stranger to Himself’
5. Archie Fisher – ‘Reynardine’
6. Bread, Love and Dreams – ‘Brother John’
7. Bill Fay – ‘Garden Song’
8. Water Into Wine Band – ‘Stranger in the World’
9. Tudor Lodge – ‘Willow Tree’
10. Comus – ‘Diana’
11. Meic Stevens – ‘Yorric’
12. Magic Carpet – ‘The Dream’
13. Sweeney’s Men – ‘The Pipe on the Hob’
14. Tim Hart & Maddy Prior – ‘False Knight on the Road’
15. Dr Strangely Strange – ‘Dark-Haired Lady’
16. Albion Country Band – ‘I Was a Young Man’
17. COB – ‘Music of the Ages’
18. Roger Nicholson – ‘The Carman’s Whistle’
19. Bridget St John – ‘Fly High’
20. John Martyn – ‘She Moves Through the Fair’
CD 2
ELECTRIC ALBION
1. Richard Thompson – ‘Roll over Vaughn Williams’
2. Steeleye Span – ‘The Lark in the Morning’
3. Unicorn – ‘Country Road’
4. Fairport Convention – ‘A Sailor’s Life’
5. Trees – ‘Glasgerion’
6. Fotheringay – ‘Gypsy Davey’
7. David Bowie – ‘Black Country Rock’
8. John Martyn – ‘Glistening Glyndebourne’
9. Mike Cooper – ‘Paper and Smoke’
10. Shelagh McDonald – ‘Mirage’
11. Spirogyra – ‘Disraeli’s Problem’
12. Mick Softley – ‘Time Machine’
13. Shirley Collins & The Albion Country Band – ‘Murder of Maria Marten’
14. Pentangle – ‘Jack Orion’
15. Incredible String Band – ‘Painted Chariot’
16. Nick Drake – ‘Voices’

The Emperors of Wyoming

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The USP for The Emperors of Wyoming is the presence of Butch Vig, ace producer and Garbage drum peddler with the smoke signals billowing headlines such as “Butch Vig makes country rock album!” Well it ain’t exactly like that. Truth is that back in the eighties Vig and the other Emperors (Phil Davis, vocals, guitars, Pete Anderson, bass, guitars and Frank Anderson, lap and pedal steel guitars, keyboards and banjo) played in a couple of Madison, Wisconsin bands before going their separate ways. In 2009 Anderson enlisted his pals to help him realise a bunch of tunes he had been working on. Scattered across the USA they agreed to join in however there was no grand “class reunion” but rather a welter of emails and wav files tossed back and forth until they came up with this, the finished product, a band who haven’t played together in the same room so far.
Despite this remote way of working its fair to say that The Emperors have come up with a classy product with the overall cohesiveness belaying any concerns regarding the recording process. It isn’t country rock in the sense that Poco or the early Eagles were, instead it tends to ape the likes of Tom Petty, Chuck Prophet and the Stones in their country guise. Davis’s voice strains at times although he can sound a little like Petty and there’s even a touch of Jagger’s sneering drawl on I’m Your Man. From the Neil Young like strummed guitar that opens The Bittersweet Sound of Goodbye (and lets not forget where the band name comes from) to the thunderous and monumental riffing of The Pinery Boy the album is corkful of very radio friendly sounds.
While Avalanche Girl may be a little formulaic lyrically it yearns to beam over the airwaves with its familiar Petty like jangle, similarly Cruel Love Ways hits all the right buttons but fails really to take off. The band more than make up for this elsewhere, upping the ante both lyrically and musically. Cornfield Palace starts off with a piece of lyrical corn
“I’m in love with a girl with a cornfield palace/she’s the queen of West Alliss/ in her SUV/ she like’s to watch Dallas on her big TV”
but it swings like a tipsy Dixie Queen dancing to Crazy Horse at the sloppiest best. Brand New Heart of Stone has a narcotic feel with evil sounding guitars and a percussive drive that almost lapses into dub at times. One gets the feeling that Keith Richards would love this song. Sweep Away is almost a country ballad albeit one that has been stewed in a goat’s head soup for some time and there’s even a touch of the stones’ whoops from Sympathy For the Devil towards the end. The album’s highlight however is the majestic and stately Never Got Over You which builds to a fine climax with fine pedal steel and guitar interludes.

Proper records