Silver Mountain
Deadstring Brothers. The name conjures up images of George Clooney in ‘Oh Brother, where art thou?’. Luckily, I wasn’t subjected to banjos and bluegrass, but I wasn’t too far wrong. Apart from the lack of Clooney in the line-up, we’re talking country-tinged rock n’ roll from Detroit, Michigan. Not the first place you’d think of looking for such music: hard garage rawwwk, yes, melodic rootsy blues-rock, no.
Ok, so it’s nothing Earth-shatteringly innovative, but these days good ole rock n’ blues is hard to find. In fact, the whole album sounds suspiciously like ‘Exile On Main Street’. Clearly these guys are heavily influenced by the Stones, and deliciously unafraid to wear those influences on their sleeves. Even the yearning male vocals on tracks like ‘If You Want Me To’ are a carbon-copy of Mick Jagger’s strained, rolling style. If these guys were going to enter ‘Stars In Their Eyes’, they’d nail it. And yet I don’t want to instantly dismiss them as mere Stones-alikes. They have the riffs and goodtime rock n’ roll attitude of such groups as The Faces, and the tunes stand up to scrutiny. Yes, they sound familiar, and yet manage to be totally original. Probably not instant classics, but definitely something that sticks in the brain.
Opener ‘Ain’t No Hidin’ Love’ has that irresistible foot-stomping quality, even if it’s not the most memorable track. The only thing that lets it down is the weak start to the vocals. Fortunately this improves further along the record. The boogie rock contrasts beautifully with the Emmylou Harris-style country drift of ‘Silver Mountain’ where the female vocals really come into their own. Tracks like these are where the band really come into their own, and it’s a shame that gorgeously heartbreaking songs like this just don’t make it to the UK charts anymore.
The lazy crawl of ‘Some Kind Of User’ is tricky to describe: White Stripes simplicity meets Eagles-style guitars, with a laid-back heavy beat would probably do it. It’s like nothing else around currently. All the way through the record, a Hammond organ drones in the background giving the songs a depth and dynamic unusual in country/blues traditions. As the album progresses, straight-out country music is the order of the day on tracks like ‘You Look Like The Devil’. Ordinarily, I’d have rolled my eyes and cursed the person who sent me a country record, but I genuinely think there’s a market for this. It’s not a million miles from Mark Knopfler’s latest offerings. ‘Rolling Blues’ hits a happy medium between the rock and roll, country and blues, sounding much more like Led Zepplin’s folksy acoustic guise.
This is the clean-cut but rootsy sound of a band hitting a high in their career. They’ve already released two albums and a DVD, so how come we haven’t heard of them? Ah, another of those traditions of ‘real’ band: the road called them, and they answered. In other words, these guys have been (and are now) on tour.
Yes, they sound like the American Country Stones. And yes, you will double-take when the Jagger-style vocals start (I’ve been assured it’s not him, honest!). But there are some beautifully written ballads, catchy riffs, and brilliant musicianship that is so rare. It makes listening to a whole country album an unexpected pleasure. In fact, the CD is making its way to the car stereo as I speak. Their market will probably be the ‘oldies’ who like 60’s music, but I personally think that’s doing a very good band a disservice.