Good ole boys
One of the songs on “Mud” is called “Deep Down In The South” (no great shock there, given that all things Southern are basically Whiskey Myers stock in trade) but the screeching country blues on offer would not be out of place on a Drive By Truckers record. The Truckers are tour mates of Myers and singer Cody Cannon seems to have channelled Patterson Hood for the vocals, and one of DBT’s album titles isn’t too far away from the thoughts here.
Because it is, as they observed, a blessing and a curse to write an album as good as WM’s “Early Morning Shakes” 2014 effort was. For God’s sake, how the hell do you follow it up?
Well, the answer seems to be this: you get together with Producer Dave Cobb, make your percussionists full time members of the band and write something that is very obviously – and quite rightly – cut from the same cloth (let’s be honest, you don’t want loads of experimentation here) but which is firstly a progression, but secondly just eclipses what was already brilliant in every single way.
It’s obvious from the get-go of the laid back countryfied “On The River” that “Mud” is a little bit special. Thing is by the time the title track has kicked in there’s a suspicion that it might be phenomenal. Nobody, not Cadillac Three, Blackberry Smoke or anyone else for that matter mixes country with rock this well.
“Mud” is perfectly happy to take chances and take the music into other areas too, “Lighting Bolts And Rain” is soul-filled and downright funky, “Stone” by contrast is a piano led and the kind of song that makes sense at 2.30am when things are weighing heavy, and the airy, bluesy acoustics “Trailer We Call Home” is a kind of Southern take on Springsteen’s “The River” which Steve Earle would be proud to call his own.
The blue collar characters in the songs are superbly crafted. “Frogman” a veritable screeching thumper written with, and featuring, Rich Robinson of Black Crowes hides it’s tale of a Navy Seal missing home behind a wall of sound, and the self-doubt in the narrator in “Hank” gives the track a real edgy feel.
He makes it through as music saves the day, and that’s basically the message in the closing song “Good Ole Days” which offers the thought that the real world, as opposed to the world on the tv news, ain’t all that bad and the Grand Ole Opry style strut of the music here seems to be suggesting that the music world hasn’t changed much either.
Ultimately “Mud”, in contrast to one or two bands recently, is exactly the record that you wanted Whiskey Myers to come back with. Moreover, it’s the record that needed to come back with. The venues for their Winter UK tour have already been upgraded once, it’s a fair bet that even they won’t hold them by the time the touring cycle is done.
Country rock’s new stars are right here. And they are in the mud, glorious mud.
Rating 10/10
