Last week, bluegrass veterans Old Crow Medicine Show released Carry Me Home (ATO, 2012), a rabble-rousing first offering since 2008's Tennessee Pusher (Nettwerk). As the title suggests, each track from beginning to end rely and a deep nostalgia that give even the fast-paced ditties layers of emotion. The opening title track is a bouncy rebel song about fighting for the confederacy in the Civil War and the ache to return home when inevitable casualty happens.
Perfectly bridging the distant past to very different times, the second track, "We Don't Grow Tobacco," details the painful end of a family farm with bitter, aggressive humor in the vocals. "Levi" follows as a much more modern war song about a soldier from Virginia that dies in the desert 10,000 miles away from home. As simple as that, they switch from old stories to new anthems that wail with shocking relevance despite the traditional Appalachian sound. "Ain't It Enough" is a sort of contemporary, pleading "This Land Is Your Land," against excess and advocating unity.
But Old Crow is always liable to shift gears without much warning. Knee-slapping "Mississippi Saturday Night" gets the listener moving and laughing before everything slows again a couple tracks later with the heartbroken ballad, "Genevieve". From love lost to goodhearted romping with a "Country Gal," this album is very well balanced and arranged with some great material to keep the listener's attention throughout. The last two tracks are a prime example of the abrupt jumps they can make but get away with thanks to the brevity of the tracks. "Sewanee Mountain Catfight" is a fast, and especially vivid track about some kind of backwoods female fighting circuit that features great soundscape effects like breaking bottles that slams on the brakes into the last track. "Ways of Man," concludes the album in slow, reflective lines and picking that winds the album down exceptionally.
Check Old Crow Medicine Show touring the East Coast this August and order the new album here.
No comments:
Post a Comment