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Review: The Gourds CD release at Antone’s
Certain core values hold the power to withstand a recession.
Friday night’s celebration of the Gourds’ latest release, “Haymaker,” bore the proof: as long as you have a group of steady musicians and a solid supply of libations - on a porch, a living room, or a stage in downtown Austin - nothing can really be all that bad.
The Flatcar Rattlers, a local group who formed about a year ago, opened the celebration on a high-energy note with a set of songster punk, uncorking a moonshine-laced attack that sounded as if it was conceived in a room somewhere in the North Carolina Appalachians, between a washtub bass and a stack of records by Hank Williams and the Clash.
The Archibalds followed with a set of solid alternative rock, hard-driven though uninspiring at times.
The Gourds have thrived over the better part of a decade by defying easy categorization, and the songs on “Haymaker” further expand the group’s stylistic reach.
The band opened with a couple tracks off the new disc: tight, accordion-driven “Country Love” and on-the-road dirge “All The Way to Jericho” leading into “Out on the Vine” from the band’s previous release, “Noble Creatures.”
The group controlled the mood expertly between its main poles, Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith, running from soaring multipart harmonies and Cajun-laced gospel to Allman Brothers-inspired roots rock. The thick, funky blues of “Shreveport” fused into the rock-out-loud singalong “Lower 48.”
Russell’s vaudeville delivery on instant-hit “Tex-Mex Mile” balanced Smith’s brooding deadpan on ironic blues-rocker “Luddite,” and accordionist Claude Bernard led a rousing rendition of the Irish traditional “Whiskey in a Jar.”
The audience sang along and some danced, as ounce by ounce the Tecates and Miller Lites lined up atop the group’s amplifiers disappeared into the night.
It was Antones on a Friday night in Austin, Texas. It was the Gourds celebrating a new release. For one evening, at least, troubles faded and everything seemed all right.
author=Joel Weickgenant
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Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: In The Clubs, Reviews
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By jerry talbot
February 1, 2009 2:51 AM | Link to this
your thesaurus called and asked for a vacation