Of late, Bard Edrington V has been our go to guy for a hefty dollop of good old fashioned American roots music. Via albums with The Hoth Brothers and his own solo efforts, Edrington drills into the heart and soul of old time American music, be it from the heights of Appalachia to the parched deserts of New Mexico. Tired & Branded finds him back in the saddle, surrounded by a fine set of players, all of whom have appeared on his previous efforts (including Bill Palmer, Jim Palmer and Alex McMahon, along with Sarah Ferrell and Karina Wilson – both of whom appeared live with Edrington on his most recent UK tour) and this ensemble (now christened The Blackbirds) sound like they have a great time recording, be it on a stripped back session in the ghost town of Terlingua (as heard on Two Days In Terlingua) or in a studio on the banks of the Rio Grande in Alamosa, Colorado where this album was recorded.
The album opens with the slightly ramshackle strains of Sometimes I Do It Wrong (and that’s ramshackle in a positive sense by the way) as the band just seem to amble in and start playing. It’s the sort of song The Deslondes do so well with an easy sway and strut, ladles of creamy pedal steel, country fiddle and laid back harmonies. Edrington’s easy vocals, along with the harmonies with Ferrell and Wilson are the cream on this cake. Vertigo is more tightly strung, a banjo rattled number with a strident fiddle and an insistent beat with Edrington sounding not a million miles removed from the protagonist in Porter Waggoner’s Rubber Room. Much less claustrophobic is the wide open vista of Dance Across The Desert Like Rain, a great title and a great song and played with a beautifully light touch.
Edrington writes and sings brilliantly about the frontier and songs such as Tired And Branded and Taos Lightning (a reworked version of a song about illicit Tequila which first appeared on Burn You Up) are pitch perfect and he’s just as able when he writes about his own experiences as on Torcido, a song about an old bull elk in its dying throes, a creature Edrington came across and now immortalised in this excellent and tender ballad. There’s the spritely Spring In New Mexico which features Wilson’s fiddle and she’s also prominent on the chugging train song 489, the delivery of which reminds one of the heyday of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Bassist Sarah Ferrell gets the chance to shine when she takes over the singing on Down River, a song which is more bluesy than the rest of the album, recalling Maria Muldaur’s forays into old time music. And for those who like a good old fashioned swampy country song there’s the hip swaying gumbo of Dancing To Your Song which snakes along with a Waylon Jennings’ like bounce.
There’s one song which steps away from Edrington’s usual haunts as Stonewalls Of Dent was inspired by time spent in the town of Dent in the Yorkshire Dales where he was admiring the art of drystone walling. In the grand tradition of the Child Ballads, he weaves a song of forbidden love between a shepherd and a fair maiden with Wilson’s fiddle giving the song an authentic English folk song touch.
It’s a tremendous album which deserves to be heard far and wide. Edrington has been on a winning streak with his previous albums and on Tired & Branded he just gets better.
