COAL CREEK BOYS - OUT WEST
2015 - Self Released
It is rare that an album so slow and sparse is listenable for very long but this tremendous recording has a vocalist who is both warm and expressive and those sparse arrangements that are beautifully thought out and recorded, as a consequence of which the album often takes on the feel of Townes Van Zandt at his most moodily reflective. The songs, all written by lead vocalist John Paul Smith, are excellent and give a flow to the album that when added to the versatile vocal characteristics and the often deep and dark moodiness has an almost cinematic quality.
Making up the remainder of this highly unusual Canadian trio is Dane Alexander on drums and Dino Scavo on bass, mandolin and accordion both of whom add enormously to the albums quality with their skill and restraint. There is always a haunting atmosphere and surprisingly more than enough variety to make the album repay with interest repeated listening sessions. At the end the listener has the feeling of being on a long emotional journey, an unusual feeling for an album of this nature. In many ways it was brave of the band to have made a recording that is predominately slow and containing very little sonic impact but it works beautifully thanks to the huge quality of everything on the disc, sitting them firmly at the forefront of a style that incorporates country and western, alt. country, folk, cowboy movie soundtrack and a nice punky edginess. As the songs drift enigmatically along an awareness dawns that perhaps things are almost imperceptibly speeding up a little and taking on an even more dramatic edge on tales such as the twangy, dark Two Shots, a song that had Johnny Cash still been around would undoubtedly have been a huge hit for him and if he had found the raw deep dark epic Deadwood, he would have probably thought these songs were manna from heavan!
When you add the fact that the album just gets better and better with every listening session, I and no doubt all other listeners have to wonder how this talented band can possibly fail, something I don't really see as an option. This is genuinely an album and a band that sit in a unique generic field of one thanks to this recording of such great quality and depth!
http://www.thecoalcreekboys.com/
It is rare that an album so slow and sparse is listenable for very long but this tremendous recording has a vocalist who is both warm and expressive and those sparse arrangements that are beautifully thought out and recorded, as a consequence of which the album often takes on the feel of Townes Van Zandt at his most moodily reflective. The songs, all written by lead vocalist John Paul Smith, are excellent and give a flow to the album that when added to the versatile vocal characteristics and the often deep and dark moodiness has an almost cinematic quality.
Making up the remainder of this highly unusual Canadian trio is Dane Alexander on drums and Dino Scavo on bass, mandolin and accordion both of whom add enormously to the albums quality with their skill and restraint. There is always a haunting atmosphere and surprisingly more than enough variety to make the album repay with interest repeated listening sessions. At the end the listener has the feeling of being on a long emotional journey, an unusual feeling for an album of this nature. In many ways it was brave of the band to have made a recording that is predominately slow and containing very little sonic impact but it works beautifully thanks to the huge quality of everything on the disc, sitting them firmly at the forefront of a style that incorporates country and western, alt. country, folk, cowboy movie soundtrack and a nice punky edginess. As the songs drift enigmatically along an awareness dawns that perhaps things are almost imperceptibly speeding up a little and taking on an even more dramatic edge on tales such as the twangy, dark Two Shots, a song that had Johnny Cash still been around would undoubtedly have been a huge hit for him and if he had found the raw deep dark epic Deadwood, he would have probably thought these songs were manna from heavan!
When you add the fact that the album just gets better and better with every listening session, I and no doubt all other listeners have to wonder how this talented band can possibly fail, something I don't really see as an option. This is genuinely an album and a band that sit in a unique generic field of one thanks to this recording of such great quality and depth!
http://www.thecoalcreekboys.com/