This album was recorded by Phil Freeborn in Claustrophobia studios, Berlin. It’s an unlikely source of bluegrass-inspired music! ‘On The Road’ features the special guest guitar/vocals of Bill Hangley alongside the regular lineup of Matt DeHarp (Mandolin, guitar, harmonica), Tony Rose (guitar), Joe Armstrong (guitar, bass) and Mark Mulholland (guitar, mandola, banjo). All four provide vocals on this country-tinged collection of understated songs.
‘On The Road’ opens with harmonica and slide guitar whipping up a lo-fi storm in a blues-y key, before the sleepy twang of ‘I Am A Pilgrim’ drones out its lonely melancholy and uplifting backbeat.
Mandolins ring out of the classic-sounding ‘Long Time Coming’ as gorgeous, downbeat vocal harmonies do their work in soothing the soul in the pit of self-deceptive despair. Taking its cue from the rise and fall of emotions, this wanders beautifully lost in a sea of confusion.
‘Roulez-Roulez’ grinds the rock and roll path down to the pit of desperation, and relentlessly reworks it in highly-strung fashion, dizzyingly lost in the genre’s key elements. By contrast, ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’ is blurred with atonal melancholy, the local sights as seen a thousand times that roll gorgeously into some sort of barrel-organ ground, jaded view.
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The drunken brain misfires and the green eyed monsters cavort with demons in a recurring nightmare world that still clings to the music and dignity. The blues harp rattles as the strings intensify.
‘Time To Go’ is delightfully in tune with a familiar melody that rings out with the pain of loss. Harmonics thicken the senses but (with considerable help from some good ‘ole alky-hol) the hurt still shivers out of the song. Cracked vocals complete the sense of misery, but the melody offers a hint of hope with an upbeat climax.
The twelve-bar train ploughs on in celebration of the demon drink in ‘Whisky’ but the devil’s side of matters comes-a-spinning sneakily out of the sleepy, withdrawn, ‘Abstinence Blues’. The arrangements for the assembled string instruments these boys favour makes for an intricate and absorbing listening experience, and the subtle clicks and licks shine out with the 4-part vocals in a way that any set of ears would find endearing.
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