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DEADSTRING BROTHERS
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But to honest hell with this hyperbolic bullshit and baroque blatherings this is just a heartfelt, humane and deeply affecting record and should be hitting the soft centres of all us rawhide-hearted hunks of person-hood whose ears have been pierced by the likes of Slobberbone, The Replacements, Lone Justice, The Scorchers, Dan Baird, The Mekons and so on, into the sunset side by side n’ hand in hand. ________________________________________________________ |
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-Stu Gibson |
Another
fine red-rimmed n’ bleary eyed slice of gorgeous bourbon braised country
soul from Bloodshot courtesy of these self-deprecatingly titled drifters.
Channelling all that Muscle Shoals sweet soul with the glorious erratic
raggedness of ‘Exile...’ (‘Lights Go Out’ is held in it’s
swoonsome hour of darkness by a guardian angel in the guise of ‘Shine A
Light’), the intangible, ghostlike beauty of The Jayhawks when Olsen and
Louris laboured together over love and life and lyricised it all liquidly
if they’d had Texan troubadour and transcriber of downtown Dallas darkness
Tommy Hale on vocals. The keening voice of actual singer Kurt Marschke is
complimented beautifully by Marsha Marjieh who is just blessed with an
exquisite voice that floats into your throat and turns your guts to mush
whilst tickling your feet and neck with feathers, in the way of Maria
McKee or Margo Timmins. But this is just one, albeit a large, factor along
with the brass section on ‘Sacred Heart’ that’s
simultaneously wind from a woozy angels wings and the whoopin’ holler of a
soused good ol’ boy winning at the wheel while ‘Whisky Rock-A-Roller’
hits the jukebox, the sadly sweet moanin’ at midnight fiddle on the
pre-battle civil war campfire jig ‘Moonlight Only Knows’,
the salt in open wound sting of the slide, the penance of the pedal steel
on ‘All Over Now’, all shrouded in the organ that flows
throughout like cleansing baptismal water in this supreme stew of sorrow,
sin and succour. A faithful cover of The Bands ‘Get Up Jake’
is perhaps my only bugbear as it brings little to the table amongst this
plentiful harvest, apart from to tip a weather beaten hat at a great song
and influential band (as seen on their own murder ballad ‘Blindfolded’).
Closing hatful of hope ‘Lonely Days’ (as in ‘they’ve gone!’)
instils some peace in this particular valley for now, so until the next
time...