J Shogren and his band The Shanghai'd have with this, their latest album, managed to carve a niche of their own. Part blues, part country, this is hard acoustic music, which Shogren himself terms “Pulp Americana”.
The music is excellent, the songs witty, as befits a man whose day job is a professor of Applied Philosophy, and a man who has also served as the King of Sweden's special professor on environmental science, and was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. With all that going on, it is even more surprising that he and his band have been able to craft an album that is both complex and at the same time simple. One that is forward thinking while still looking back.
Opening with the wonderful 'Holding Tank', the mood is set straight away. A humourous country blues, with prominent guitar, this really rocks: - “Take me down to the holding tank, Just to think I want one more drink.”, coming on like some drunkard's prayer, one can't help but wonder what sort of women inhabit his life: - “She likes to sleep when the sun comes up, just roll her over and butter her up... I will love you 'til I sober up.”
Following this is 'Boney Lemon Davis', a song that simply chugs along with some excellent backing vocals and harmonies:“Diggin' it down (x 4), Don't you quit posin' 'til you hit solid ground/ Diggin' it down (x 4), Don't you quit posin' 'til my bones are in the ground.”
Sometimes the mood can be a bit depressing, such as on 'A Long Line', whose lyrics initially are almost at odds with the faced paced banjo driven romp, that streaks along like a hare out of a gate: - “Ain't nobody worried 'bout the limelight. We all know we'll get there in no time/ You and me, we all stand, in a long, long line of drunks and fools.” Once again, the harmonies really add to the song, and in the end it takes off in a celebration: - “C'mon boys the drinks are on me, C'mon boys the whiskies are free/ And there aint nobody countin' tonight!”
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Tracks like 'Rolls Her Own' give an insight into what the band must be like live, with its quickfire spoken intro: - “Since I've got you all here together now, Let me tell you what she told me/ There's just something way all too clear with this/ And I don't mean some kind of deja vu, so in a way/ I have done this, I have physically done it.” This is a blues that motors along and has some excellent guitar picking. What's evident on this CD is that the band play well together and aren't afraid to cut loose and have a laugh such as on the magnificently titled 'Pickled Pickles Panger Polka', which is indeed just that.
Special mention however must go to 'The Treetopper's Wife', a ballad which in the background manages to have a descending guitar line akin to The Fall's 'I Am Damo Suzuki'. This is an amazing track, with some direct, heartfelt lyrics: - “Do you love me, way I wanna love you? The way I always, never got around to do/ I have convinced myself, least by the light of the day/ Yes this is love, love the hard way.”
Overall this is a real gem, and is available as a download on Amazon or as a manufactured on demand CD from Amazon.Com. Well worth getting hold of.
J. Shogren & The Shanghai'd online
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