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The pick of this time arounds crop I reckon. A quite liltingly lovely backporch lazing graceful glide for the most part spliced down the middle with a short sharp shock of reelin', a-rockin' - shufflin' rug-cuttin' boogie (on "Baby Likes To Mess Around" with a nimble little riff pilfered off the Reverend Cash's "Luther Played The Boogie"). All glistening slightly tremeloed guitars shimmering away, with big, grizzly sized honky-tonk telecasters twanging around in the front. Walking (unsteadily?) along the same dusty dirt roads as Steve Earle (mainly from his "El Corazon" period), Sid Griffins' Coal Porters, and lesserly Mr. Earle's fellow Texan troubadour compadres Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and the very late and very great Townes Van Zandt. Put all that in the pan and fry it - you get some excellently written, played and constructed classic country toons. Of course ya do... the highlight quite possibly been the gently rollin' masterpiece Wildcat which by it's very nature would have been tempting to blast out Nuggets style (indeedy do it does share a geetar pattern with The Sonics classic Strychnine which is included here as an extra track on which The 'Tones sound like they've ploughed their way thru' an enviable amount - me currently being skint and on the rickety old wagon - of the circle of fifths pictured on the cover) but understatement lets it saunter along on the superglue strength of its infectious melody ("She drinks like a fish and then we fight like cats"). The vocals are a key card to play too. Brent Pennington's hoarse, cracked, roadworn and weary, almost consumptive voice fitting their style supremely... reminding me of Roky Erickson's beautiful "All That May Do My Rhyme" material. But the ace to play is Stefanie Hodovance's Maria McKee / Margo Timmins thing goin' on (seen as I just got Eileen Rose's "Long Shot Noveena" too & finding similar this is a double reason to rejoice) in "Broken Man", especially on the hauntingly smoky Cowboy Junkies woozy haze of "Words".
This is a mini marvelling classic that should be purchased by anyone liking any of the above mentioned people 'cos it's fucking brilliant, despite them looking like geography teachers.
- Stu Gibson