I was looking forward to hearing this album as the band's name conjured up an act that was going to sound Like Mojo Nixon/Jello Biafra's Prairie Home Invasion meats Angry Johnny and the Killbillies meets the Beat Farmers and Bad Livers and as they are Canadian there might be a good helping of Corb Lund thrown in for good measure.
I started to worry a bit with some of the press release's claims when - on listening to the album - it only proved whoever wrote it hadn't listened to the songs. Claiming that the opening track sounds in anyway like the Queens Of The Stone Age is laughable and detracts from the singer's Biblical wrath and portentous lyrics about what will become you when the Angel of Death comes your way.
On the upside, they do a good cover of Bruce Springsteen's State Trooper with the singer pleading with the state trooper not to stop him before they indulge in a great siren and fiddle solo. Cameo is a nice slow lament but as with the rest of the album it isn't really new country; more sort of old country gets modernised a touch. It certainly hasn't been rehabbed.
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The Last Hand takes a typical country theme of the card game gone wrong but doesn't come close to the lyrical dexterity of Corb Lund's All I Wanna Do Is Play Cards.Instead, it tries to update the old blues standard Peter Blue but just doesn't have the same impact as listening to Cousin Joe singing both parts of the song.
The next 4 songs passed me by without any impact whatsoever. I certainly didn't notice any dub Reggae whatsoever on Ramblin' Man, just a bland nondescript cover of the Hank Williams standard. The closing tune Mind Your Own Business has a great handclap intro and some great fiddle parts to it and is a pretty decent tune.
Overall New Country Rehab are far blander than they think they are and this album would have worked better as a 5 song EP. Nice try.
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