It’s nice when a guy proffering a cool CV turns out to have a great record tucked into his belt into the bargain. Take the enigmatic KORBY LENKER for example. His David Lynch/ Crispin Glover-style background tells of birth in Southern Idaho to a mortician father and school marm Mom, a grounding in Appalachian folk and bluegrass and a stint in a high school band called Clockwork Orange playing Cure and Love and Rockets covers. I’m already interested by this stage, but when it turns out our man has also done time participating in reptile-handling religious services in West Virginia…well, snakes alive – how can I possibly resist?
Brilliantly, it turns out his frayed and emotional rock/ country/ folk muse is the equal of his curiously fascinating reputation. Of course, if this reviewer had been paying attention earlier, he’s have realised that Mr. Lenker has actually already released six albums in the past five years (with his previous combos The Blue Light Boys and Barbed Wire Cutters) and that ‘King Of Hearts’ is actually his seventh full-length album release, allegedly his most rock-oriented one to date. Well, it sounds like a great floor to stop the elevator and jump in to these ears at least.
Recorded predominantly in and around Korby’s Seattle base, ‘King Of Hearts’ features our hero’s emotive guitars and vocals sympathetically aided and abetted by bassist Andrew Simmons and drummer Scott Mercado, though this core trio is often augmented by equally adept guests such as dobro player Mike Grigoni and Michael Connolly’s masterful Hammond organ. There’s light and shade aplenty on offer and a nice array of moods to grab the listener throughout.
Opener ‘Bored’ sets the scene effectively, showcasing Lenker’s sleepy, live-in voice (a little akin to Matthew Ryan most of the time), an attractive lyrical fatalism (“And the best that you can hope for/ is to roll the dice and not die poor”) and the first of Connolly’s decisive organ guest slots. It rocks in a frustrated, introspective fashion and finds Korby peeling off a mean’n’expressive guitar solo that shows he knows a damn sight more about his fret board than just flat-picking bluegrass techniques.
‘Bored’ isn’t the only time ‘King Of Hearts’ rocks either. Despite alluding to Lenker’s religious sojourn with the snake-handlers in Virginia, ‘Cedars Of Lebanon’ is bright and straight up with an eminently hummable chorus; the intriguing ‘Billygoat’ is within touching distance of the best Stateside power pop (down to a well-plotted guitar solo) and the tight, chugging ‘The Hook Comes Round’s title correctly describes its’ catchy chorus and infectious groove. Indeed, by the time Korby’s dispensed that great kiss-off line (“Put your clothes back on and let me take ‘em off again!”), dazzled us with a Glenn Tilbrook-style guitar break and Connolly’s Hammond has filled in the corners, you’re only just south of perfection in my book.
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But Lenker has plenty more arrows in his quiver, too, and he sounds every bit as convincing when he’s executing the deceptively pretty, but lyrically creepy likes of ‘Papercuts’ and the soporific shuffle that is ‘No, Don’t Know’ where his shaken and cracked voice implores “don’t dispose of your precious soul/ you got just one go at this world”: a sentiment that we can all relate to however sunny we’re feeling. ‘Angel Of Mercy’ is slower and deathlier again (with distant echoes of the likes of Songs:Ohia) with a chorus fully deserving of the epithet ‘hymnal’ and a funereal, but redemptive feel to it’s that’s undeniably great.
Indeed, by the time Lenker and co. sign off with the well-heeled pop/rocker ‘Come Closer’ and the daft, irreverent bonus-track fun of ‘The Myspace Song’ they’re winding up a rather fine album that may be primarily Mid-western in design but leaves those all-too-easy ‘Americana’ pigeonholes standing ransacked and empty. For all his traditional bluegrass ability and slightly kooky credibility, Korby Lenker is a terrific singer/ songwriter who will (snake)charm his way into our hearts and stay there if he can keep up the creativity.
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