This Kentucky-based band has gone through a number of line up changes and recently expanded to eight members for this album.
The bluegrass template is still evident but the inclusion of drums and electric guitar means that a traditional folk-country sound strictly or purists is no longer high on the agenda.
This is their fourth album; the first two had male lead vocals but the dominant voice now is that of Beth Walker whose raspy, full-throated style can best be described as an acquired taste.
The record actually starts quite promisingly with Runner's High, a relatively straightforward song about deciding what to do after being dumped, but then the following tracks drift aimlessly between a range of styles in a confusing and mildly irritating manner.
A dark tune taunting death (Reaper's Jug) and Pendulum, a song about the inability to find a sense of equilibrium ("I dangle like a dead man on a rope") rub shoulders with a mixture of swamp rock, vaudeville and pure novelty.
On The Welder, we hear a raunchy duet between a bickering husband and wife ending with her threatening : "I'll stalk you like a wild-eyed crazy-ass bitch for all your life, keep you weldin' and hell-bent all the night". This level of vengeful violence and gallows humour continues with the next track - '(Attempted) Murder Ballad'.
The one song written and sung by Frank Ward entitled , logically enough, 'Frank's Song', is a more straightforward comedy turn but sticks out like a sore thumb in the same way that Ringo's songs always do on Beatles' albums.
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Open Sea contains clear enough advice to go out and see the world but precisely why life should be likened to an open sea rather than an open road left me a little bemused. My hunch is that chief lyricist Travis Young (who also plays banjo) is eager to disregard obvious collocations in his search for a more poetic tone.
This would explain why his words often tend to be dense and obtuse. For instance, we find lines like "pooling in a froth of ecstasy" (Manifest Destiny) or waxing lyrical about the "earth swaddled in a swirling storm" on The Moment To Be Born. Such wordplay is at odds with Joel Serdenis' relatively conventional country-folk arrangements and therefore sounds slightly pompous.
The imbalance between form and content is exacerbated by Beth Walker's brash phrasing. Her grating habit of stressing random words makes interpreting the meaning behind many of the songs nigh on impossible.
All in all then , it is an album that promises far more than it delivers.
Blind Corn Liquor Pickers’ website
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