Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners are a Boston-based accordion-driven Americana sextet who release their latest EP’Dances By Firelight’ this month composed of three new original songs and a pair of covers of Sturgill Simpson and Billy Strings tunes. It follows on from their recent six track EP `Before The Fall` which came out in April of this year.
This extended play opens with `Little But More, Little Bit Less` and is a positive, call-and-response bluegrass offering that I can imagine will go down a storm in a live setting. Lyrically thephrase “ask and you shall receive” the common saying rooted in religious texts, particularly the Bible is at the heart of the number but here it`s more personal than spiritual with the narrator longing for an audience member to come intimately closer, their drink to be stronger and their bar tab to be reduced. A definite floor filler in anybody`s book. There`s a more enticing slow burn with `Don’t Let Perfect` which has some delightfully hypnotic honey tinged baritone vocals that really draw you in with haunting fiddle, accordion hues, and a rolling rhythmic drumbeat. An alluring number.
`Further Down the Road` I read draws you into the world of chain gangs, marriage, the church, truckers and what Byrnes calls “all of life’s little mysteries” and I have to concur. A number that will touch your very soul. We enjoy a slightly altered rendition of Sturgill Simpson’s `Turtles All the Way Down` which retains all the emotion of the original but has an almost spiritual texture to it and will leave you with reflections of your own.
The final cut is an interpretation of (William Lee Apostol) better known as Billy Strings’ `Dust in a Baggie`. Somebody called the original “Dazed and Confused” meets “O Brother Where Art Thou” and here it has a similar vibe. A cautionary tale of high times, literally.
Kier Byrnes had shared that they “sip from a flask filled with outlaw country, rock, Americana, Irish, and Slavic folk music.” and I have to say they certainly do. There`s five superb tracks here to enjoy and you`d have to be made of stone not to get up and dance along. If you wanna get your groove on to this sextet this side of the pond, they are heading to the low countries of The Netherlands and Belgium in early July for over a dozen shows.
An opportunity to Dance by firelight and one not to be missed
Rating 9/10
