JOSH LEDERMAN Y LOS DIABLOS have been regulars on the Boston music scene for the past six years, playing their ‘Irish-Jewish Folk-Punk’ to pubfuls of beer-swilling, bouncing shindiggers. In the main, ‘It’s A Long And Lonely Time Until The Train Will Bring You Home’ is a collection of acoustic, folky Americana, with a distinct Irish twist. They’re lively, poetic, MacGowan inspired songs; tales of joy and woe and love and bums and vagrants. These are songs to get drunk too, whatever your mood – some when you’re drinking whisky with lager chasers in search of answers, some when you feel like putting your hands on your hips and dancing like a cowboy in the midst of a baying circle of strangers.
Arrangement wise, this is reasonably traditional fare: Lederman’s distinctive voice backed by guitars, drums, percussion and bass, plus the odd bit of mandolin, accordion and banjo. And Lederman is a talented songwriter no doubt, drawing on a little black book of past experiences; encounters and characters that remain fresh in the mind even if the details have begun to disappear, like old photographs, yellowing at the edges. His voice isn’t instantly likeable, but you do get used to it, until in fact you couldn’t really imagine these songs sung in any other style. Still, the first time you listen to this record you might find yourself initially warming most to ‘The Moosejaw Express’ and ‘A Dram For The Boys;’ a couple of instrumental jigs. There’s also the strange ‘Ana Nevksy,’ a Cossack dance-inducing ditty.
|
When you play the record back for the second time, now familiar with Lederman’s drawling peaks and troughs, you can better appreciate his irony-laden, somewhat psychedelic storytelling. ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ is the lonely lament of a lovelorn wanderer. ‘The Northern Wind’ is a yee haa-ing, backslapping stomp for former friends and lovers, featuring the kind of sing-along chorus that could be embraced by the football terraces. ‘Winter Hill’ is a bittersweet reminiscence of past times; the kind of memories that, good or bad, will always stay with you. ‘I Fell Inside a Ditch’ treads a similar, if slightly darker path down memory lane; ‘I fell inside a ditch and all the women saw me fall’ sings Lederman, ‘my eyes held the blue sky that should have been my last.’ Time to reach for that bottle.
So in summary, ‘It’s A Long And Lonely Time...’ is a nice record, if something of an acquired taste. If you’re just discovering alt.country music due to the emergence of people like Bright Eyes, can imagine something like that mixed with a bit of ‘The Irish Rovers’ and fancy delving a little deeper, you might like to check out Josh Lederman y Los Diablos.
|
