Ash Gray and his band of Texan Yorkshiremen are back from the Covid wilds with a live album to show us what they are capable of. The album also works as an career overview for Ash Gray taking in material from his earlier band High Class Family Butchers, as well as more recent songs, all recorded live at the Dorothy Pax on the banks of Victoria Quays in Sheffield. I was almost expecting to read that the members of The Burners are also in the Burner Band, but they are totally separate entities. The Burners in question are Johnny Griff, Tom Townsend, Jim Widdop, Tom Jarvis, Joe Newman and Liz Hanley.
From the countrified blues of opening song Jeremiah they are in laid back yet scorching form, with some livewire slide playing with plenty of picking going on as the gently repeating refrain of Hey Grandpa slowly wakes the crowd up.
The Creek Don't Rise has a down home gospel blues feel, sweet harmony vocals with engaging pedal steel that everything else seems to be built around.
Two Lane Blacktop is in tribute to that fabulous film as we dream of sitting in a car with Dennis Wilson and Warren Oates as Ash does his best to give his vocals a bit of a James Taylor twang to them, as hopefully they don't pick any stray waifs along the way.
Billy is introduced as a song about the old west, rather than being an Lou Reed cover about Vietnam Vets, this takes us to the prairies for those cowboys to ride across in the Badlands of West Yorkshire, or New Mexico if you prefer, as Billy gets on down that road hoping to out run the Sheriff and his boys.
Three Old Guns is a honky tonk drinking blues for those Three Old Guns Ash likes hanging out drinking and smoking with, it has a countrypolitan edge to it.
Chickenwire isn't about playing at the Dorothy Pax, as I can't hear any bottles smashing against the Chickenwire during this slow country love going wrong song thankfully, they are hoping to assuage those horny feelings with woozy guitars and Pedal steel, with some very genteel percussion as this tale unfolds with each twist accentuated by the music.
The Other Man has a military style drum intro like his ready to beat reveille before it twists and builds into this plaintive steel riding blues, as he tries to figure out how to play the role of being The Other Man without demeaning anyone else.
Sundown is a dales blues as the sun goes down, she runs away on a ship, as this picks up its pace as the action unfolds, as if Waylon is lurking just beyond the horizon.
The County Line is a new war of the roses, as they battle it out down some nasty ginnels in a gin joint called The County Line, with a barrelhouse organ solo to help you stumble out into the night again, picking guitars rather than fights or noses.
Back Alive could be an anthem to a return to normality after covid, or it could be an upbeat burnished country twanger for everyone to shout Back Alive too, While the more drunken among you might mistake the tune for Stepping Stone thus singing the wrong words to the chorus, before the guitars really start to wail against that organ as the club turns the lights down low, as they're heading for a final showdown and are very happy to be Back Alive again a great affirmative set closer.
What I then assume is the encore is When The Devil Comes Home is just perfect to help give you nightmares about going home with the wrong person from an Ash Gray gig, finding out they are really the devil and not the kind of Devil you wanted to go home with, so instead you want to go out on one more pub crawl around steel town hoping to find a street that still smells like burning coal.
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