NEW AMERICAN FARMERS – FARMACOLOGY SESSIONS
2014 – Big Barncat Records
Paul Knowles and Nicole Storto not only make excellent music but it is also music that defies any attempt at placing them in a nice neat genre. There is a mix of rock, blues, country, folk and the various off shoots of those broad genres, even including a taste of psychedelia. In other words they just write and play as the mood takes them. They previously performed and recorded four albums as the, unsurprisingly, also excellent Mars Arizona, with this recording being their second as New American Farmers.
There is nothing contrived or false about this album, just great musicians playing music that they have a powerful depth of feeling and skill for as well as a variety of influences. For want of a better description, many of the songs have an appealing ‘chugging,’ almost funky feel at some stage of the composition, in fact it could be said that because of the stylistic variety it is this and the vocals that actually imbue the album with any kind of uniformity, although it would also be true to say that country music is always in evidence. Not that the variety is a problem, on the contrary, the New American Farmers not only bring a little diversity to the form but also a uniqueness thanks to their mastery of a number of roots sub genres.
Of the nine songs on the album six are excellent compositions by Paul Knowles and Nicole Storto with the other three being terrific covers of songs by Chip Douglas and Bill Martin, The Alarm & Mike Peters and an incredible reworking of Hank Williams I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.
The recording opens with the duo’s own Down At The Pharmacy, with a nice chugging percussive start before being joined by Paul and Nicole’s harmonies with Paul handling most of the lead, accompanied by a lovely steel guitar sound on an unusual folksy country song that has a hugely appealing melody on this tale that is even interspersed with a ‘Tex Mex’ feel. The Garden is built on some strange eerie vocal harmonies with some great blues rock guitar playing (a la Gary Moore?) on a song that thanks to those vocals has a genuinely otherworldly spooky feel. It could just as easily be a folk song as a blues thanks to their originality and lack of recognition of generic boundaries. Just A Note includes more excellent chugging bass and percussion that is soon joined by gorgeous steel guitar on a reflective, haunting country ballad with an excellent lead vocal from Paul and lovely harmonies from Nicole, with an added highlight being the ‘high lonesome’ guitar sound that gives the whole song a spacy feel. Chip Douglas and Bill Martins The Door Into Summer is just about as classic a country rock sound as you will ever hear. Their rendition of the song from lead and harmony vocals to the arrangement of the instruments is a real throwback to the early days of country rock, with more than a nod to the early days of psychedelia. Terrific performance. On that already mentioned incredible version of the Hank Williams classic they have kept the sound both sparse and unusual, with the lead and harmony vocals excellent and full of emotion and whilst they have produced their own arrangement, my guess is that Hank would approve of this almost ambient, spooky version.
I’m still unsure about their reasons for changing their ‘band’ name although perhaps the idea was to try to get fresh impetus into their career. If they make more albums of this quality it will be a very long time before they need another name change.
http://www.newamericanfarmers.org/
Paul Knowles and Nicole Storto not only make excellent music but it is also music that defies any attempt at placing them in a nice neat genre. There is a mix of rock, blues, country, folk and the various off shoots of those broad genres, even including a taste of psychedelia. In other words they just write and play as the mood takes them. They previously performed and recorded four albums as the, unsurprisingly, also excellent Mars Arizona, with this recording being their second as New American Farmers.
There is nothing contrived or false about this album, just great musicians playing music that they have a powerful depth of feeling and skill for as well as a variety of influences. For want of a better description, many of the songs have an appealing ‘chugging,’ almost funky feel at some stage of the composition, in fact it could be said that because of the stylistic variety it is this and the vocals that actually imbue the album with any kind of uniformity, although it would also be true to say that country music is always in evidence. Not that the variety is a problem, on the contrary, the New American Farmers not only bring a little diversity to the form but also a uniqueness thanks to their mastery of a number of roots sub genres.
Of the nine songs on the album six are excellent compositions by Paul Knowles and Nicole Storto with the other three being terrific covers of songs by Chip Douglas and Bill Martin, The Alarm & Mike Peters and an incredible reworking of Hank Williams I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.
The recording opens with the duo’s own Down At The Pharmacy, with a nice chugging percussive start before being joined by Paul and Nicole’s harmonies with Paul handling most of the lead, accompanied by a lovely steel guitar sound on an unusual folksy country song that has a hugely appealing melody on this tale that is even interspersed with a ‘Tex Mex’ feel. The Garden is built on some strange eerie vocal harmonies with some great blues rock guitar playing (a la Gary Moore?) on a song that thanks to those vocals has a genuinely otherworldly spooky feel. It could just as easily be a folk song as a blues thanks to their originality and lack of recognition of generic boundaries. Just A Note includes more excellent chugging bass and percussion that is soon joined by gorgeous steel guitar on a reflective, haunting country ballad with an excellent lead vocal from Paul and lovely harmonies from Nicole, with an added highlight being the ‘high lonesome’ guitar sound that gives the whole song a spacy feel. Chip Douglas and Bill Martins The Door Into Summer is just about as classic a country rock sound as you will ever hear. Their rendition of the song from lead and harmony vocals to the arrangement of the instruments is a real throwback to the early days of country rock, with more than a nod to the early days of psychedelia. Terrific performance. On that already mentioned incredible version of the Hank Williams classic they have kept the sound both sparse and unusual, with the lead and harmony vocals excellent and full of emotion and whilst they have produced their own arrangement, my guess is that Hank would approve of this almost ambient, spooky version.
I’m still unsure about their reasons for changing their ‘band’ name although perhaps the idea was to try to get fresh impetus into their career. If they make more albums of this quality it will be a very long time before they need another name change.
http://www.newamericanfarmers.org/