RT 'N' THE 44s - BOTH HANDS ON THE BOTTLE
2017 - Self Released
It is an incredibly rare occurrence for me to review an album I purchased, always feeling that if people send me an album or download they have taken some trouble to get their work to me, despite the fact that I review a small enough percentage of those anyway. So, what does it take for me to break that rule? Basically it takes an album of the incredible quality of 'Both hands on the bottle,' something that is very rare but does occasionally happen.
By my reckoning, although I wouldn't want to bet on it, this is RT Valine's thirteenth album, alone or with his band, the 44s, although as I've intimated I could be wrong and there were one or two 'mini albums' in that figure. If correct perhaps this could be 'luck 13' and be the album that gives him the worldwide recognition his talent so richly deserves. Whilst the previous dozen ranged from very good to absolutely essential, somehow this recording feels to me to be his best yet. There are great songs, excellent playing and RTs hugely atmospheric vocals that really do make him sound like a reincarnation of the late great Johnny Cash in his prime, albeit a world weary gospel tinged prime, edgy and working his way through an incredible if up and down career with his deep, rich vocal style.
With RT's albums you will not get any over produced polish and certainly no sanitization. Instead you will get 'lo-fi' production values that give his heartfelt, often deeply personal, songs an atmosphere that can't be matched by anyone else I can think of. The actual band was formed in 2009 by the now Oklahoma based singer songwriter RT Valine although in the past they could often be seen busking around Los Angeles and Pasadena with their tin and 2 x 4 timber homemade instruments, lending further credence to the fact that this is a genuine do it yourself band, as those lo-fi recordings also confirm.
Known by many as a Folk Noir/Country Blues band, to my ears 'real country' would be a far better description with their raw sound and complete lack of sanitization echoing the music from the first two or three decades of recording history but without all the crackles and pops! I saw another description that had them down as a 'vintage country band with dark obsessions' which is probably the most accurate summation of them. The performance and the song are the dominant features rather than the spending of a fortune (in the unlikely event that they actually have one) simply polishing the sound and removing the 'realness' from these tremendous songs.
All of the songs are RT originals and many will think they've heard some of them before, perhaps due to this talented artists ability to take simple, often 'ear worm' melodies and build excellent engrossing stories around them. The 'home made' raw texture of the recording is perfectly suited to his vocals, virtually making them sound like outtakes from Cash albums, although outtakes that should have made the original release! Those recording sessions stretched from 2013 to 2017 during which he played all of the instruments himself with two exceptions. They are Speaking in tongues, on which Brendan Willard and Johnny Sneed are featured, whilst Bart Weilburg plays lead guitar on Lonesome feelings, the playing throughout the album always being excellent.
This incredible recording clocks in at thirty tracks, several of which are instrumentals, extending to nearly one and a half hours, meaning that if you download it from Bandcamp, as I did, you will need to burn it to two discs! On looking at his older albums from a recording career and band that has only been working for eight years, to say the man is prolific is a huge understatement. The subject matter is varied, covering everything from tender love songs, love lost, the harshness of the lives that some have forced upon them, many themes found in what used to be called 'country and western' music and just about anything else that takes his fancy. Some may find the home made textures and sparseness of the album difficult to grasp but I'm sure that the quality of the songs, the lyrical and textural variations, the playing and the vocals on these thirty compositions will win over even those who like a little polish on their listening pleasure. The songs often have a strange, lonely, otherworldly feel that is partly brought about by the slight echo, as if being recorded in a huge open space, creating an appealing deep, often arid atmosphere that is perfectly suited to Rt's modern 'country and western' songs!
On the first of these thirty tracks, That old waltz, sparse guitars very gently fade in eventually Joined by RT's deep, raw vocals that echo Johnny Cash at the end of a session. There are some excellent if infrequent harmonies that fill out the sound and add a 'gospel' element to the song and with a little echo that makes this excellent composition sound as if it was recorded in a church. Law of the gun is another great song that would have suited Johnny Cash perfectly and yet he couldn't possibly have bettered RT's tremendous performance. The guitar and banjo are kept a little lower in the mix, allowing the vocal full rein on this incredibly powerful atmospheric tale. The haunting treatment helps create an overall quite spooky, sinister song. There is a quite unusual chiming guitar with lovely harmonica on Meigs county gold, a tremendous story song that creates a hugely evocative atmosphere on a powerful, dramatic mining tale. There are so many contrasts on this tremendous album with Lone wolf being a mid tempo, quite haunting, 'trucker' song that tells of the life of isolation whereas Number 9's echoing sparse acoustic guitar sound creates an arid desert, spaghetti western atmosphere. Ballad of Billy Holt is an excellent, haunting song with an unusual guitar sound that often has a funky feel on a tale that thematically is classic country. Contrast this with Orphan Annie, on which the guitar, fiddle and banjo are supplemented with some excellent harmonies on another classic country 'love' song. This one is a tribute to his chicken and includes some welcome interventions from a nice twangy guitar as the story progresses!
'Both hands on the bottle' is awash with songs of great quality, deep dark vocals and excellent playing but If you want your listening pleasure to be polished, sugary and over produced don't go near RT and co. Of course, if you want real, raw countrified roots music that tells stories and keeps you entertained, like me you will need to purchase all of RT n' the 44s albums, perhaps starting with this tremendous recording!
http://www.rtnthe44s.com/
It is an incredibly rare occurrence for me to review an album I purchased, always feeling that if people send me an album or download they have taken some trouble to get their work to me, despite the fact that I review a small enough percentage of those anyway. So, what does it take for me to break that rule? Basically it takes an album of the incredible quality of 'Both hands on the bottle,' something that is very rare but does occasionally happen.
By my reckoning, although I wouldn't want to bet on it, this is RT Valine's thirteenth album, alone or with his band, the 44s, although as I've intimated I could be wrong and there were one or two 'mini albums' in that figure. If correct perhaps this could be 'luck 13' and be the album that gives him the worldwide recognition his talent so richly deserves. Whilst the previous dozen ranged from very good to absolutely essential, somehow this recording feels to me to be his best yet. There are great songs, excellent playing and RTs hugely atmospheric vocals that really do make him sound like a reincarnation of the late great Johnny Cash in his prime, albeit a world weary gospel tinged prime, edgy and working his way through an incredible if up and down career with his deep, rich vocal style.
With RT's albums you will not get any over produced polish and certainly no sanitization. Instead you will get 'lo-fi' production values that give his heartfelt, often deeply personal, songs an atmosphere that can't be matched by anyone else I can think of. The actual band was formed in 2009 by the now Oklahoma based singer songwriter RT Valine although in the past they could often be seen busking around Los Angeles and Pasadena with their tin and 2 x 4 timber homemade instruments, lending further credence to the fact that this is a genuine do it yourself band, as those lo-fi recordings also confirm.
Known by many as a Folk Noir/Country Blues band, to my ears 'real country' would be a far better description with their raw sound and complete lack of sanitization echoing the music from the first two or three decades of recording history but without all the crackles and pops! I saw another description that had them down as a 'vintage country band with dark obsessions' which is probably the most accurate summation of them. The performance and the song are the dominant features rather than the spending of a fortune (in the unlikely event that they actually have one) simply polishing the sound and removing the 'realness' from these tremendous songs.
All of the songs are RT originals and many will think they've heard some of them before, perhaps due to this talented artists ability to take simple, often 'ear worm' melodies and build excellent engrossing stories around them. The 'home made' raw texture of the recording is perfectly suited to his vocals, virtually making them sound like outtakes from Cash albums, although outtakes that should have made the original release! Those recording sessions stretched from 2013 to 2017 during which he played all of the instruments himself with two exceptions. They are Speaking in tongues, on which Brendan Willard and Johnny Sneed are featured, whilst Bart Weilburg plays lead guitar on Lonesome feelings, the playing throughout the album always being excellent.
This incredible recording clocks in at thirty tracks, several of which are instrumentals, extending to nearly one and a half hours, meaning that if you download it from Bandcamp, as I did, you will need to burn it to two discs! On looking at his older albums from a recording career and band that has only been working for eight years, to say the man is prolific is a huge understatement. The subject matter is varied, covering everything from tender love songs, love lost, the harshness of the lives that some have forced upon them, many themes found in what used to be called 'country and western' music and just about anything else that takes his fancy. Some may find the home made textures and sparseness of the album difficult to grasp but I'm sure that the quality of the songs, the lyrical and textural variations, the playing and the vocals on these thirty compositions will win over even those who like a little polish on their listening pleasure. The songs often have a strange, lonely, otherworldly feel that is partly brought about by the slight echo, as if being recorded in a huge open space, creating an appealing deep, often arid atmosphere that is perfectly suited to Rt's modern 'country and western' songs!
On the first of these thirty tracks, That old waltz, sparse guitars very gently fade in eventually Joined by RT's deep, raw vocals that echo Johnny Cash at the end of a session. There are some excellent if infrequent harmonies that fill out the sound and add a 'gospel' element to the song and with a little echo that makes this excellent composition sound as if it was recorded in a church. Law of the gun is another great song that would have suited Johnny Cash perfectly and yet he couldn't possibly have bettered RT's tremendous performance. The guitar and banjo are kept a little lower in the mix, allowing the vocal full rein on this incredibly powerful atmospheric tale. The haunting treatment helps create an overall quite spooky, sinister song. There is a quite unusual chiming guitar with lovely harmonica on Meigs county gold, a tremendous story song that creates a hugely evocative atmosphere on a powerful, dramatic mining tale. There are so many contrasts on this tremendous album with Lone wolf being a mid tempo, quite haunting, 'trucker' song that tells of the life of isolation whereas Number 9's echoing sparse acoustic guitar sound creates an arid desert, spaghetti western atmosphere. Ballad of Billy Holt is an excellent, haunting song with an unusual guitar sound that often has a funky feel on a tale that thematically is classic country. Contrast this with Orphan Annie, on which the guitar, fiddle and banjo are supplemented with some excellent harmonies on another classic country 'love' song. This one is a tribute to his chicken and includes some welcome interventions from a nice twangy guitar as the story progresses!
'Both hands on the bottle' is awash with songs of great quality, deep dark vocals and excellent playing but If you want your listening pleasure to be polished, sugary and over produced don't go near RT and co. Of course, if you want real, raw countrified roots music that tells stories and keeps you entertained, like me you will need to purchase all of RT n' the 44s albums, perhaps starting with this tremendous recording!
http://www.rtnthe44s.com/