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Elly Roberts reviews
New West Records
- August 2007
- Rating: 8/10
Strange title – excellent album.
Twenty eight year old ex-Drive-By Truckers Jason Isbell goes truckingalone and gets great results. Its certainly brought dividends for the Alabamasinger-songwriter.
War, his home and former outfit provide the influences for strangely titledSirens Of The Ditch. It took almost four years to surface, so its notexactly rushed, and you can tell.
Recorded at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, best known for legendary singers likeAretha Frankin and Otis Redding, Isbell has tried to capture the spirit of itsprevious occupants with an excellent eclectic blend incorporating Blues, Country,Soul (hes managed to recruit Soul legends David Hood and Spooner Oldham) withcertain DBT elements, though this is very much an artist branching out andstamping his arrival.
Making a dazzling impact, hes gone for a crunching rocker for the opener Brand New Kind Of Actress, a la Bryan Adams with obligatory catchychorus and wailing guitar solos. Its a strong start. Switching code forDown In A Hole, he opts to delve into swampy R&B, a cool sojourn withtwanging guitars, ghosting keys and lightweight acoustic guitar texturing theentire song.
On Chicago Promenade, a simple piano leads to an eventual steady rocker.A delightful pedal steel dressing by John Neff, provides the country templatefor swaying rambler Dress Blues which turns out to be one of the albumshighlights.
Theres a distinct country-rock edge to Grown with Isbells rounded vocalsimpressing as it moves. His soulful Hurricanes has an impressive bluesytwist, highlighted by his deft touches on electric guitar solos which Claptonwould be proud of.
His acoustic handy work is equally impressive on stripped back In A Razor Town,a gentle ballad that shines at very level. Further on, chugging The Magician,bounces along nicely whilst plucking banjo picks give it that ho down touch, ashe well and truly leaves the DBT script behind him.
As if to say a final farewell to DBT, the hauntingly simple acoustic and pianoof The Devil Is rounds off a very competent and stylish debut.
Weblinks:jasonisbell.com /newwestrecords.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Brand New Kind Of Actress
2. Down In A Hole
3. Try
4. Chicago Promenade
5. Dress Blues
6. Grown
7. Hurricanes And Hand Grenades
8. In Razor Town
9. Shotgun Wedding
10. The Magician
11. The Devil Is My Running Mate
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.