Back in the late sixties – early seventies, there was a movement in music toward what Gram Parsons once referred to as “cosmic American music”. The idea was to fuse some of the trappings of the psychedelic with the more traditional sounds of country and western. It was a sort of “back to roots” moment, in way. The sadly over-hyped but vastly under-rated (at the time) Moby Grape got it under way, but it really took off with The Byrds,The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Parsons’ solo work. This fusion of the trippy and the earthy was dubbed “country rock” – not a terribly imaginative name, but certainly a descriptive one.
Then The Eagles came along with the other so-called “cocaine cowboys” and fucked it up for everybody. It’s only been recently that the genre, now often referred to as "Americana" or "alt.country" (whatever that is), has been rehabilitated, although many of the neo-country rockers are leaving out the psyche angle. Which is fine, of course. Personal choice and all that, follow your muse, etc.
And then there’s The Sadies, god bless ‘em, who have proudly taken up the “cosmic American music” banner and run with it. The fact that they’re Canadian just makes it all the more poignant.
What we have here is a collision between twang and fuzzbox. And just as it was in the famous chocolate/peanut butter controversy of the mid-seventies, they’re two great tastes that taste great together. So put down that Toby Keith CD, my friend, and shake yourself. The Sadies have got the goods, and they’re here to deliver.
To be perfectly honest (and hey, it was bound to happen sometime), the only context in which I’d heard The Sadies previously was in their incarnation as Neko Case’s back-up band. They do a fine job of that, providing the requisite velvet for Neko’s diamond of a voice. Nothing too flashy, just good solid musicianship. On their own, though, they do a fair bit of shining themselves.
This album has more instrumentals than some people are gonna be comfortable with: four, to be precise. Now, for some reason, otherwise intelligent folks tend to freak out sometimes when presented with what the British so quaintly call “pop music” that doesn’t have a vocal track. I’ve never really understood that, myself. Some tunes can covey their meaning without words. Isn’t that what jazz is generally about? So why not apply the same logic to non-jazz idioms and just relax a little. All that tension can’t be good for the blood pressure, right? Besides, The Sadies aren’t just screwing around – all instrumental tracks are Grade A, #1 quality goods. The galloping “Northumberland West” gets things rolling nicely, in what sounds to me like a nod towards Bakersfield (although, if pressed, I couldn’t really pin down exactly why it hits me that way); “The Curdled Journey” is not unlike something Ennio Morricone might have put together, were he in a dark and brooding frame of mind; “Iceberg” is melancholy, in a psychedelic way – not a bad trip, I hasten to add, just one that maybe makes you a little wistful, if you can imagine such a thing; and then there’s the hellish waltz of “A Burning Snowman”, all reverbed guitar and crashing drums. And, y’know, let’s hear it for heroic drummer Mike Belitsky, godammit, who does some genuinely nice work throughout. As do all The Sadies, really, but drummers always seem to get the short end of the stick. No pun intended.
Right. Let’s move on, shall we? Songs with vocals now. “Translucent Sparrow” is just as acid-tinged as the title might suggest – the fuzzed-out guitar at the end makes a nice foil for the horn section, or vice versa. (And again, more great drumming. Yay!) “1000 Cities Falling” is chockablock with apocalyptic imagery - “The angels killed the devils / hung them in the streets and reveled / in the bloodlust and the fires of revenge” – accompanied by acoustic guitar and some very nice pedal steel. The song is part of a suite, along with “Song of the Chief Musician” and “Why Be So Curious?”, although I’m not sure how that last one fits into the rather dire, “end of days” mood set up by the first two. Then again, I’m not the sharpest pencil in the box.
The first time I heard “A Good Flying Day”, I was waiting in an airport for a flight down to California to visit my parents. With its jangly guitars and harmonies by the Brothers Good (Dallas and Travis), I took its upbeat, Byrds-y tone as a good omen for the flight ahead, for whatever that’s worth. Also on the Byrds tip is “Only You and Your Eyes”, the instrumental I forgot to mention above. Ooops. Well, it’s been a long day, buckaroos. Anyway, that’s five instrumentals for those of you keeping score at home, out of a total of 13 cuts altogether. If that scares you, you really need to get out more.
Ahem.
“As Much As Such” is an amiable sixties-style county-ish romp, and probably the weakest cut on the disc. Hey, there has to be one, right? “Coming Back” puts me in mind of nothing so much as The Meat Puppets, although not quite as, uh, herbally challenged as they were. “Why Would Anybody Live Here?” is essentially “Only You and Your Eyes” with vocals by Robyn Hitchcock. Or, since Hitchcock wrote “Why Would Anybody Live Here?”, which features the phrase “only you and your eyes”, perhaps it’s the other way around. Either way, it does tend to set the mouth a-water for a Hitchcock/Sadies album, in the mode of his recent collaboration with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. If I live a good and virtuous life (it could happen), perhaps this will come about.
Since I haven’t mentioned him yet, I should point out that Sean Dean played the bass throughout. He’s difficult for me to pull out of the mix. When you think about it, that’s not too surprising, since neither country nor psychedelia tend to emphasize the bass. On the other hand, if the bass player sucks, he’ll definitely stick out, in either genre. So I think we can surmise that Mr. Dean acquitted himself well, and we should hope for his sake that he’ll get bumped up a little higher in the mix next time.
So, where does this leave us? Well, hopefully I’ve inspired y’all to go out and sample some of this outstanding country-rock for yourselves. Big thumbs up, in other words.
As for me, I’m going to bed.