Back in the days when Ryan Adams stayed sobre enough to make great records and artists like Wilco, Gillian Welch, The Jayhawks and Richard Buckner were on a roll, Alternative Country served as the perfect antidote to bland predictability of Indie Rock.
Somewhere along the line, the momentum stalled and, nowadays, truly great records in this genre are the exception rather than the rule. The recent news that No Depression magazine, founded in 1995, has folded seemed to presage the end of an era.
Then along comes a quintet from New York to show that rumours of the death of this genre have been greatly exaggerated.
Boasting a endorsement by Greil Marcus,no less, The Jones Street Band's uplifting debut captures the reworking of traditional styles which is the essence of Alt.Country.
Bold covers of prestigious tracks by The Band, Bill Monroe and John Hartford emphasise their respect for the lineage of this music. They add nine top rate original compositions to give the contemporary gloss.
The guest appearance of ex-Mekon & sometime Waco Brother, Jon Langford on a Pogues-like number called 'One Last Love Song' gives further proof that these are serious players.
There's humour on tracks like 'Grand Canyon' and 'Last Time' but they are more than just another good time band. The poignant title track is an instant classic and other songs by Danny Erker display him as a real songwriting talent.
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The only weak link is an upbeat singalong song called 'Argentine' which is probably a live favourite but sounds a little novelty-ish here.
In contrast, the slowed down version of Monroe's bluegrass favourite 'Walls of Time' has great maturity and sureness of touch.
The choice of John (Gentle On My Mind) Hartford's 'Tall Buildings' as the closing track is similarly inspired, and contains these great lines :
"and it's goodbye to the sunshine, goodbye to the dew
goodbye to the flowers, and goodbye to you
I'm off to the subway, I mustn't be late
going to work in tall buildings".
I sincerely hope that this album gets the success it deserves so that the band don't have to go and work in tall buildings.
If they can follow it with something even half as good they'll be spearheading an Alt.Country revival for sure.
12 t 38.48m
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