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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > January > 05 > Entry
CD review: The Gourds, ‘Haymaker!’
The Gourds
‘Haymaker’
(Yep Roc!)
4 stars
The party line goes something like this: The Gourds should be, as Puffy and Mase once elegantly put it, bigger than the city lights down in Times Square. Their recombinant rocky-tonk jam-folk is equal parts Louisiana humidity and Austin wit, though they’ve never really been able to decide if their wiseacre streak is a plus or an albatross. Frankly, they’re almost a smaller-scale version of the Drive-By Truckers, rootsy lifers who find success and a seriously bonkers core audience well after many lesser acts have called it quits.
Depending how you count soundtracks, “Haymaker” is their ninth, tenth or eleventh album in 15 years, another rock-solid effort from guys who figured out long ago that as good as the CDs are, they’re still just fliers for the live show, even if family commitments keep them more off the road than on.
There’s a strong sense of place on “Haymaker!,” at least on Kevin Russell’s tunes. ‘Country Gal’ shouts out the swaying nymphs that populate the jammy, outdoor festivals the Gourds deserve to headline and “Tex-Mex Mile” puts in a good word for the South Austin of the mid-’90s when life was good and rent and weed were the only concerns (“I was Rip Van Winkle but I thought I was Apollo Creed”).
“Shreveport” misses home while “(All the Way to) Jericho” longs to hit the road. Smith’s tunes stick to girls like “Bridget” (too young for him) and the oddball “Fossil Contender” (related to the Band’s “Jemima Surrender?”). Let’s hope for their sakes “Haymaker!” is the roundhouse they were looking for.
Per usual, it will at least knock you flat.
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