Having disbanded his group, Reelfoot, and taken on a self-imposed five year hiatus from recording, P.W. Long, one of our finest country-rock troubadours has finally emerged from the dust storm with a brand new album. Although the edges may have been filed down from his rowdy approach of years past, this record is still covered in the grit of many hard-lived years. And, lucky for us, it has quickly established itself as one of the finest records he's ever recorded.
Striking to the core, as in years past, is the voice of Mr. Long. His growling tones conjure images of Waylon Jennings and Jay Farrar, but with more whiskey and cigarettes coating the outside. When he sings the title of It Just Don't Seem To Matter Now, you can't help but feel the pain in those words and believe that this man knows of which he sings. Top that with the fuzzed out guitar sounds that ring through almost every song here and, if you ever concerned yourself with who Uncle Tupelo passed the torch to at the end of their run, you will wonder no more.
The songs themselves are a more straightforward lot than usual. They sound as if they were recorded live direct to tape. Each instrument plays off of the other so succinctly that it's a good chance that the five years underground were spent polishing each tune to absolute perfection. The lyrics on each song ooze of pain and self-imposed agony of some sort. On the track, Better, he plaintively apologies to "every one of you who's died to me" as he strums a lone electric guitar, pulling the thorns out of his side the whole way. Later, he insists I Can't Tell The Things I Done, begging off the truth as an organ rings out as if reminding him of sins past. After all the shrugs and shuffles he does remind us at the end: "Would you have me any other way?".
The answer to that question for anyone who hears this new album should be: "Hell, no!" As much as it may bug us to commiserate with someone with so many demons lurking over his head, when it produces music this raw, truthful, and beautiful, you wouldn't dare have it any other way. |