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SXSW review: The Coal Porters
“Has anyone taken any strong drink today?” inquired Coal Porters’ Neil Robert Herd near the outset of the band’s set at Opal Divine’s Freehouse at 11 p.m. Wednesday (aka St. Patrick’s Day). “Is there some sort of Irish celebration going on? It’s almost subliminal!”
He continued, “Any song I sing tends to concern itself with drink and regret — not necessarily in that order…” Whereupon the band launched into a spirited (get it?) rendition of “One Is Way Too Many” from their new album, “Durango.”
Yours truly would probably have gone to see the Coal Porters just on the basis of their name (yours truly’s wife wants to have him committed to a punnery).
But their long and winding evolution from an electric ensemble that was the brainchild of ex-Long Ryder frontman Sid Griffin to their current incarnation as an acoustic alt-bluegrass conglomeration of English and Canadian bluegrass fanatics is enough to pique any acoustic music fan’s curiosity.
On record, the group’s repertoire is broad enough to embrace both the English folk standard “Pretty Polly” and Neil Young’s “Like A Hurricane” on the same disc. Onstage, with their dark suits and earnest, coiffed — Griffin excepted — look, they appeared as if they stepped out of the director’s cut of “A Mighty Wind.” In both case, they alternate between sweetly melancholy laments like Peter Rowan’s “Moonlight Midnight” (courtesy of will-o’-the-wisp fiddler and vocalist Carly Frey), tongue-in-cheek paeans to public house excess (“Closing Time Genius”) and blistering banjo and fiddle breakdowns (“Sail Away, Ladies!” “No More Chains”).
All in all, the band’s show is a great romp, which fact does nothing to disguise their excellent musicianship. That only a relative handful of folks were on hand to enjoy the show is a pity, because it was, as their semi-namesake might have said, de-lovely.
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