Having already come across Matthew Gardner as part of the mercurial, but short-lived Nashville Liverpool Underground Medicine Show, I can vouch for his capabilities as a singer/ songwriter. What I didn’t realise before is what a talented, floor-shaking, utterly bitching Rock’n’Roll band his other project BUFFALO CLOVER was. And indeed continue to be.
Formed by fellow singer/ songwriters Margo Price and her husband Jeremy Ivey and also featuring bassist Jason White and drummer Dillon Napier as well as the aforementioned Gardner, Buffalo Clover was formed in Nashville, Tennessee, during 2008. As far as I can ascertain ‘Low Down Time’ is their first full-length LP, although there’s been a mini-LP ‘Strong Medicine’ (2009) and a further release ‘Pick Your Poison’ (2010) duplicating some tracks.
A peek at the LP sleeve and the band’s Nashville home turf suggest a strong, Americana-soaked statement of intent, but appearances can be deceptive. Sure, ‘Low Down Time’ occasionally touches base with its’ Roots – not least on the firewater-swigging opener ‘Can’t Stand Still’ – but in the main its’ a tough, Rock’n’Roll rave up of a record with a tasty side order of Soul.
What is absolutely clear from the outset is that Margo Price sure can sing. Her opening gambit on ‘Can’t Stand Still’ is a feisty, gauntlet-throwing “women ain’t supposed to ramble/ women ain’t supposed to drink” and from then on she lets rip with an earthiness worthy of Lucinda Williams or even Janis Joplin on tracks from the Stax-ier end of the spectrum like the horn-assisted ‘Good Man.’
With both Ivey and Gardner also stepping up to the plate in song-writing terms, ‘Low Down Time’ is simply stuffed with highlights. Songs like ‘Oh Well’ and the infectious ‘Saint Cathleen’ are closer in spirit to the Detroit Cobras than The Jayhawks and they swing like hell. Gardner’s ‘Oklahoma’ is a tuff bar-room rocker with just a tinge of John Lennon whilst his ‘Nobody Cares’ is plaintive, redemptive fare played with a garage-y energy and makes room for a guitar solo worthy of The Only Ones’ John Perry himself.
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They’re just as effective when they slow it down a little too. With Margo Price howling the blues in some style (“you never did meet me halfway...you are forever closing the door/ you tell me you’re sorry, but you don’t know what for”), ‘Don’t Lie to Yourself’ is a wonderfully smoky ballad with a cascading melody figure. ‘Seek Me Out’ goes from mellow to devastating in the time it takes Gardner to peel off another of those soul-scorching guitar solos and Price’s vocal supplies a melt in the mouth kiss to sign off on ‘Sea Breeze Revisited.’
In short, then, Buffalo Clover is most definitely not simply your bog standard Roots-Rock outfit. While I’d usually berate a PR blurb for suggesting its’ charges are capable of “underdog gypsy punk to Motown boxcar blues, Vaudevillian Acid Rock to train wreck folk,” on this occasion, I’d say such notions are anything but far-fetched. Get this album and drool.
Buffalo Clover online
Palaver Records of Nashville online
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