WATER TOWER BUCKET BOYS’ previous album ‘Catfish on the Line’ (2009) demonstrated there was still elbow room in the crowded Americana-Roots subway carriage. These Pacific North-West boys played ragin’ full on Bluegrass and Folk with a punky attitude and an all-out love of what they do and were clearly connected with the spirit of authentic, olde worlde Americana.
Their new album ‘Sole Kitchen’ broadens their palette somewhat. While they’re still very much in touch with old ‘78s and ‘Deliverance’-style duelling banjos, I can also detect tinges of everyone from The Replacements to The Dillards along the way and the addition of a drummer on several tracks has given their self-proclaimed “Psych-Trad” sound a welcome kick.
Opener ‘Crooked Road’ gives you an idea of how confident they are these days. Introducing itself as a slow and menacing Tallahassee/ Blue Ridge Mountains blues, it contains a pinch or two of ‘St. James Infirmary’ in its’ swaggering gait before it accelerates and burns impressive, moonshine-soaked rubber.
Elsewhere, it’s often when they slow it down a bit that they really score. ‘Tequila with Lime’ is a sparse and surprisingly tender ode to a much-needed hair of the dog. ‘ Since You’ve Been Gone’ and the deceptively laid-back ‘Sunday Night Roast’ are tales of love gone cold and girls done gone and the fantastic ‘Numb’ has more than a finger of The Stones’ wasted and glorious spirit (a la ‘Sweet Virginia’) about it.
There’s still plenty of room for skirling fiddles, dextrous mandolins and breakneck banjos, of course. Instrumentals like ‘Bread’ and ‘London Breakdown’ simply smoke, while the irresistible ‘Blackbird Pickin’ at a Squirrel’ can’t fail to get feet on the floor. Imagine an industrial-strength bluegrass tilt at the breakneck Folk workouts Fairport Convention indulged in during their cusp of the ‘70s prime and you’re close.
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They save the absolute best for last courtesy of the touching ‘Heaven’. Dragging Bill Monroe’s spirit into the 21st Century and liberally sprinkling on a little Burritos, it’s a moving ode to mortality (“when we all die cold and float up there/ I’ll meet you there buddy, way up in the sky”) and approached with care and an admirable lightness of spirit which is truly refreshing bearing in mind the subject matter.
Water Tower Bucket Boys, then, are the living, breathing proof that Folk Music remains as live, livid and valid as ever. Whether the title ‘Sole Kitchen’ is intended as a pop at The Doors I have no idea, but its’ songs sure as hell proffer some tasty fish to fry. Tuck in.
Water Tower Bucket Boys online
Water Tower Bucket Boys on Myspace
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