GOODNIGHT, TEXAS – UNCLE JOHN FARQUHAR
2014 – Tallest man Records
It is difficult to visualize an album, or a band, that fits better under the alt. country banner than this superb second offering from Goodnight Texas. The arrangements are perfect, the two lead vocalists comparable to the very best in this generic field and the songs vary from excellent to extraordinary making this pair two of the best songwriters around! Many bands have great vocalists, are masters of their instruments, produce tremendous arrangements and write excellent songs but there are very few that can put all of those elements together on a recording but Goodnight, Texas have pulled it off, and with interest!
The two mainstays of the band are Avi Vinocur on vocals, mandolin, guitar and banjo and Patrick Dyer Wolf also on vocals, guitar, banjo, mandolin but also drums. The other two band members Alex Nash on drums and vocals and Bobby Kendall on upright bass produce a tremendously solid foundation for the former pairing to feel safe wherever their muse takes them. The recording and hence coulouration is supplemented by Scott Griffin Padden on electric bass, Kelly McFarling, vocals, Tim Marcus on pedal steel and lap steel and finally Michael Finch on chicken sounds! Of the thirteen songs seven were written by Avi Vinocur, two were co writes with Patrick Dyer Wolf, who also wrote three solo and one was a co write between Alex Nash and Avi Vinocur. Remarkably the album was recorded in Avi Vinocur’s San Francisco apartment and is named after Wolf’s great-great-great grandfather, a man who produced a heartfelt sermon at the time of Abraham Lincolns death, the text of which is included with the album.
The unusual band name was taken from the name of a small Texas town exactly midway between the Appalachian home of Patrick Dyer Wolf and the San Francisco home of Avi Vinocur. Stylistically they come from different places and no doubt their influences are fairly obviously varied but when the two styles are put together a peerless variety of sounds is produced that blurs those differences. Sometimes the songs have a ‘hillbilly’ feel at others country rock; there are slow moody ballads, sometimes a bluesiness and even a ‘garage rock’ feel on occasions but because the two musicians styles perfectly accompany each other and blend seamlessly there is a lovely flow to this terrific album.
The album opens with Hayride an excellent if short mandolin and banjo instrumental that lets new listeners know this is going to have a powerful old time rootsy feel, written by Avi Vinocur. Then we’re off and running with track two, Button Your Collar a melodic country rock co write between Vinocur and Patrick Dyer Wolf with a terrific lead and harmony vocal and an outstanding punchy percussive sound. By the end of the third song A Bank Robber’s Nursery Rhyme the listener should have some idea of the varied stylistic content of this tremendous recording, and yet, further surprises and treats lie in wait after this fast walking tempo with metronomic percussion and banjo allied to the hillbilly sounding vocals and indeed the song as a whole. An excellent acoustic guitar joins in on a tremendous and highly unusual composition that varies between disciplined and ramshackle. If ever a song created an ‘ear worm’ this is it with it’s quite addictive and repetitive melody. Simple but excellent and another co-write. Vinocur’s The Horse Accident (in which a girl was almost killed) is a great country tale with excellent lead and harmony vocals accompanied by a banjo lead plus percussion. It’s a song that many will attach the prefix ‘alt.’ to but it really is a tremendous country song with perhaps a dash of folk! It is played at an easy mid tempo and actually has an incredibly authentic high lonesome atmosphere. Moonshiners is a tremendously powerful song that gives a strong evocation of the moonshiners world, with the melodic mandolin playing around the dark sinister story. The whole atmosphere of the song enhances a world that is often glamourised, but most definitely not here! By the time we get in to Dearest Sarah listeners will start to wonder how the writing quality is able to reach such heights. It is an incredible dark civil war story song with lovely mandolin enhancing the sadness of this cinematic tale and a vocal that perfectly enhances the atmosphere. Eventually a dramatic percussion drives the song towards it’s conclusion as the story’s hero goes to meet what he thinks is certain death. What makes it all the more remarkable is the fact that the song is based on a letter sent by a husband to his wife during the American civil war in 1861. Finally the title track Uncle John Farquhar is, as it should be, another song that evokes the 19th century, this time the high lonesome Appalachians with chiming mandolin, guitar and percussion and an excellent lead vocal on a song that creates a powerful rural feel without glamourising the subjects lifestyle.
Modern day alt. country, or whatever you choose to call it, really doesn’t get any better than this. Quite how ‘Goodnight, Texas’ can maintain this standard is difficult to visualize but I can’t wait to find out!
http://www.hiwearegoodnighttexashowareyou.com/
It is difficult to visualize an album, or a band, that fits better under the alt. country banner than this superb second offering from Goodnight Texas. The arrangements are perfect, the two lead vocalists comparable to the very best in this generic field and the songs vary from excellent to extraordinary making this pair two of the best songwriters around! Many bands have great vocalists, are masters of their instruments, produce tremendous arrangements and write excellent songs but there are very few that can put all of those elements together on a recording but Goodnight, Texas have pulled it off, and with interest!
The two mainstays of the band are Avi Vinocur on vocals, mandolin, guitar and banjo and Patrick Dyer Wolf also on vocals, guitar, banjo, mandolin but also drums. The other two band members Alex Nash on drums and vocals and Bobby Kendall on upright bass produce a tremendously solid foundation for the former pairing to feel safe wherever their muse takes them. The recording and hence coulouration is supplemented by Scott Griffin Padden on electric bass, Kelly McFarling, vocals, Tim Marcus on pedal steel and lap steel and finally Michael Finch on chicken sounds! Of the thirteen songs seven were written by Avi Vinocur, two were co writes with Patrick Dyer Wolf, who also wrote three solo and one was a co write between Alex Nash and Avi Vinocur. Remarkably the album was recorded in Avi Vinocur’s San Francisco apartment and is named after Wolf’s great-great-great grandfather, a man who produced a heartfelt sermon at the time of Abraham Lincolns death, the text of which is included with the album.
The unusual band name was taken from the name of a small Texas town exactly midway between the Appalachian home of Patrick Dyer Wolf and the San Francisco home of Avi Vinocur. Stylistically they come from different places and no doubt their influences are fairly obviously varied but when the two styles are put together a peerless variety of sounds is produced that blurs those differences. Sometimes the songs have a ‘hillbilly’ feel at others country rock; there are slow moody ballads, sometimes a bluesiness and even a ‘garage rock’ feel on occasions but because the two musicians styles perfectly accompany each other and blend seamlessly there is a lovely flow to this terrific album.
The album opens with Hayride an excellent if short mandolin and banjo instrumental that lets new listeners know this is going to have a powerful old time rootsy feel, written by Avi Vinocur. Then we’re off and running with track two, Button Your Collar a melodic country rock co write between Vinocur and Patrick Dyer Wolf with a terrific lead and harmony vocal and an outstanding punchy percussive sound. By the end of the third song A Bank Robber’s Nursery Rhyme the listener should have some idea of the varied stylistic content of this tremendous recording, and yet, further surprises and treats lie in wait after this fast walking tempo with metronomic percussion and banjo allied to the hillbilly sounding vocals and indeed the song as a whole. An excellent acoustic guitar joins in on a tremendous and highly unusual composition that varies between disciplined and ramshackle. If ever a song created an ‘ear worm’ this is it with it’s quite addictive and repetitive melody. Simple but excellent and another co-write. Vinocur’s The Horse Accident (in which a girl was almost killed) is a great country tale with excellent lead and harmony vocals accompanied by a banjo lead plus percussion. It’s a song that many will attach the prefix ‘alt.’ to but it really is a tremendous country song with perhaps a dash of folk! It is played at an easy mid tempo and actually has an incredibly authentic high lonesome atmosphere. Moonshiners is a tremendously powerful song that gives a strong evocation of the moonshiners world, with the melodic mandolin playing around the dark sinister story. The whole atmosphere of the song enhances a world that is often glamourised, but most definitely not here! By the time we get in to Dearest Sarah listeners will start to wonder how the writing quality is able to reach such heights. It is an incredible dark civil war story song with lovely mandolin enhancing the sadness of this cinematic tale and a vocal that perfectly enhances the atmosphere. Eventually a dramatic percussion drives the song towards it’s conclusion as the story’s hero goes to meet what he thinks is certain death. What makes it all the more remarkable is the fact that the song is based on a letter sent by a husband to his wife during the American civil war in 1861. Finally the title track Uncle John Farquhar is, as it should be, another song that evokes the 19th century, this time the high lonesome Appalachians with chiming mandolin, guitar and percussion and an excellent lead vocal on a song that creates a powerful rural feel without glamourising the subjects lifestyle.
Modern day alt. country, or whatever you choose to call it, really doesn’t get any better than this. Quite how ‘Goodnight, Texas’ can maintain this standard is difficult to visualize but I can’t wait to find out!
http://www.hiwearegoodnighttexashowareyou.com/