In the grand tradition of Golden Smog and Willard Grant Conspiracy, St. Louis's MAGNOLIA SUMMER are an Americana-flavoured collective, with a number of super-talented Midwestern players coalescing around a nucleus of singer/ songwriter Chris Grabau and lead guitarist John Horton.
You'll probably already know Mr. Horton better through his role as searing six-string leader with veteran roots-rockers The Bottle Rockets and if you're partial to the ragged glory of bands of a relatively similar ilk (Uncle Tupelo and Whiskeytown also readily spring to mind) then you'll be in clover with MS'S third album 'Lines From The Frame'.
Sizeable portions of the album rock pretty damn convincingly. 'Like Setting Suns' kicks us off gloriously with a flurry of Who-style power chords and clattering drums, while Horton and Grabau's fretboards get chances aplenty to be expressive on songs like 'To Better Days' and 'Pulling Phase To The Ground'. The stingin', blue collar rock'n'roll of 'The Wrong Chords', meanwhile, is arguably better still and its' incongruous disco drum pattern can't fail to raise a smile.
There again, the bleeding vulnerability of Grabau's songs and the band's collective vision ensures 'Lines From The Frame' is a winner whatever the musical backdrop requires. The opiated, Big Star circa 'Third' feel of the title track is rich and resonant with otherworldly guitars, Kevin Buckley's tremulous Fender Rhodes and the dislocated truisms of Grabau's vocal (“it's said your worst enemy is the one with you at the end of the day”) drawing you in with a quicksand certainty. The heartfelt 'Birds Without a Wire', meanwhile, comes devoid of Horton's input, but instead features a gorgeous, keening duet between Grabau and Glossary's Kelly Kneiser and shows Grabau is more than capable of honing a finely-wrought ballad when the mood prevails.
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Perhaps even better are the times when they go for the burn and get all epic on our asses. 'Diminished Returns' is a plaintive, Son Volt-ish outing where a particularly choked and memorable Grabau vocal is aided and abetted by Kevin Buckley's mournful violin and the band's retrained playing eventually gives way to a broiling crescendo. 'By Your Side' has a similarly stately feel and the appropriately-named 'Epitaph' provides a suitably valedictory closing chapter, though Horton's dissonant guitar ensures the song retains an eerie edge all its' own.
Magnolia Summer, then, are an accomplished outfit with a lot left to give. They are, admittedly, cruising a relatively familiar and dusty, Roots-Rock road, but they have plenty of gas in the tank and seem determined to enjoy the journey as well as the destination. Theirs is a road trip you should surely subscribe to.
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