DENVER – ROWDY LOVE
2014 – Mama Bird Recordings Co.
This excellent band is actually a trio, albeit one that often supplements their sound with a rotating group of other musicians all of whom are perfectly attuned to the trio’s requirements. The threesome are Tom Bevitori, Mike Elias and Birger Olsen. All of them play guitar, write the songs and sing their own compositions, something that often spells disaster, but in this case having three such talented singer/songwriters in the band works beautifully. The fact that their songwriting styles are not poles apart obviously helps, particularly as they all fit in and around alt.country, but vocally there are huge differences. Fortunately, in this case those differences do not in any way detract from the albums flow or quality, in fact the band harmonies are as good as anyones!
The album covers a broad area of country rooted music from slow moody ballads to mid tempo country rockers and with the three distinctive vocalists the impression is that the area covered is even bigger. The songs are all uniformly excellent and with a nicely varied instrumentation that is never overdone, talking of which, the support musicians are as follows. Sean MacNeil plays drums, Eric Earley handles guitar, banjo, piano, and some backing vocals, multi instrumentalist Lewi Longmire plays bass, guitar and backing vocals, William Slater plays piano and organ, David Lipkind, harmonica and Tom Menig also adds some guitar. Quite a list, but the instrumentation is always handled well and the sound on a few tracks is quite sparse, with even those that are not so sparse always being clear and well defined with never a hint of instruments vying to be heard. For this, much credit should be given to producer Eric Earley who is also the frontman of ‘Blitzen Trapper’ and longtime Denver collaborator who recorded the album at Type Foundry Studio, Portland.
All of the songs, whichever of the three wrote them, qualify broadly as alt. country, some with a stronger country leaning than others but that just adds to the already diverse nature of the album with three such different vocalists. On a few of the songs a strong ‘classic country rock’ influence can be heard but I suspect all three members, who arrived in Portland from different parts of the U.S. have overlapping influences but obviously with some differences.
The album opens with Tom Bevitori’s tremendous Lonely, Lonesome And Alone a slow moody tale that opens with acoustic guitar before being joined by a haunting steel guitar on a terrific ballad, with Bevitori’s excellent lead vocal and some tremendous band harmonies. They are eventually joined by a deep twangy electric guitar which further adds to the mellow but at the same time deep and dark atmosphere on this sad tale. This is followed by the Mike Elias penned and sung Carry On with its chiming electric and steel guitars that gets under way with a slow moodiness but then gradually takes off on another excellent song, one that has a lot but never too much going on. Birger Olsen’s Bird In The Morning Dew has appealingly atmospheric lead vocal dominating a quirky tale that has a folksy feel, with a lovely chiming melodic guitar and the always excellent percussion laying a solid and varied foundation. Bound To Lose is a lively and melodic up tempo country rocker with Tom Bevitori’s raw vocal enhancing the barroom atmosphere that includes an excellent twangy guitar solo. Mike Elias’s Split Ditch has a terrific chiming guitar sound on another slow moody song that gradually rises in tempo and atmosphere before settling down as an epic as well as excellent mid tempo country rocker. The album closes with Birger Olsen’s Halfway There, a classic slow ‘country and western’ cowboy ballad that tells an evocative story of the old west, with chiming mandolin, twangy guitar and piano in the background.
This is the bands second album release and although I’ve yet to hear their debut that state of affairs will be rectified by the time anyone else reads this review! Although I’ve mentioned alt. country and country rock I can’t really say that they slot comfortably into either sub genre but if you accept the tap root of this tremendous album is country music that has been developed further by three men with different backgrounds and then all blended seamlessly you won’t go far wrong. Excellent story songs and vocals, great arrangements and playing, memorable melodies; what more could the music fan want? I’ll happily ‘settle’ for this, and I’m choosy!
http://denvertheband.com/
This excellent band is actually a trio, albeit one that often supplements their sound with a rotating group of other musicians all of whom are perfectly attuned to the trio’s requirements. The threesome are Tom Bevitori, Mike Elias and Birger Olsen. All of them play guitar, write the songs and sing their own compositions, something that often spells disaster, but in this case having three such talented singer/songwriters in the band works beautifully. The fact that their songwriting styles are not poles apart obviously helps, particularly as they all fit in and around alt.country, but vocally there are huge differences. Fortunately, in this case those differences do not in any way detract from the albums flow or quality, in fact the band harmonies are as good as anyones!
The album covers a broad area of country rooted music from slow moody ballads to mid tempo country rockers and with the three distinctive vocalists the impression is that the area covered is even bigger. The songs are all uniformly excellent and with a nicely varied instrumentation that is never overdone, talking of which, the support musicians are as follows. Sean MacNeil plays drums, Eric Earley handles guitar, banjo, piano, and some backing vocals, multi instrumentalist Lewi Longmire plays bass, guitar and backing vocals, William Slater plays piano and organ, David Lipkind, harmonica and Tom Menig also adds some guitar. Quite a list, but the instrumentation is always handled well and the sound on a few tracks is quite sparse, with even those that are not so sparse always being clear and well defined with never a hint of instruments vying to be heard. For this, much credit should be given to producer Eric Earley who is also the frontman of ‘Blitzen Trapper’ and longtime Denver collaborator who recorded the album at Type Foundry Studio, Portland.
All of the songs, whichever of the three wrote them, qualify broadly as alt. country, some with a stronger country leaning than others but that just adds to the already diverse nature of the album with three such different vocalists. On a few of the songs a strong ‘classic country rock’ influence can be heard but I suspect all three members, who arrived in Portland from different parts of the U.S. have overlapping influences but obviously with some differences.
The album opens with Tom Bevitori’s tremendous Lonely, Lonesome And Alone a slow moody tale that opens with acoustic guitar before being joined by a haunting steel guitar on a terrific ballad, with Bevitori’s excellent lead vocal and some tremendous band harmonies. They are eventually joined by a deep twangy electric guitar which further adds to the mellow but at the same time deep and dark atmosphere on this sad tale. This is followed by the Mike Elias penned and sung Carry On with its chiming electric and steel guitars that gets under way with a slow moodiness but then gradually takes off on another excellent song, one that has a lot but never too much going on. Birger Olsen’s Bird In The Morning Dew has appealingly atmospheric lead vocal dominating a quirky tale that has a folksy feel, with a lovely chiming melodic guitar and the always excellent percussion laying a solid and varied foundation. Bound To Lose is a lively and melodic up tempo country rocker with Tom Bevitori’s raw vocal enhancing the barroom atmosphere that includes an excellent twangy guitar solo. Mike Elias’s Split Ditch has a terrific chiming guitar sound on another slow moody song that gradually rises in tempo and atmosphere before settling down as an epic as well as excellent mid tempo country rocker. The album closes with Birger Olsen’s Halfway There, a classic slow ‘country and western’ cowboy ballad that tells an evocative story of the old west, with chiming mandolin, twangy guitar and piano in the background.
This is the bands second album release and although I’ve yet to hear their debut that state of affairs will be rectified by the time anyone else reads this review! Although I’ve mentioned alt. country and country rock I can’t really say that they slot comfortably into either sub genre but if you accept the tap root of this tremendous album is country music that has been developed further by three men with different backgrounds and then all blended seamlessly you won’t go far wrong. Excellent story songs and vocals, great arrangements and playing, memorable melodies; what more could the music fan want? I’ll happily ‘settle’ for this, and I’m choosy!
http://denvertheband.com/