Dusty 45s – Devil Takes His Turn / Cast Iron Filter – Falls Of Rough
By now youd figure all interested parties would appreciate that making a record is a worthwhile artistic endeavor in its own right, one thats as distinct from simply plugging in and replicating the live show as filming a movie is from staging a play.
So Im amazed (OK, bored is more like it) by how many records submitted for review, from established and unknown acts alike, arent really records at all, since they havent taken advantage of the possibilities afforded by even the most humble studio settings. Im talking about, for starters, the simplest kinds of overdubbing; some intelligent mixing; and the sorts of subtle sonic textures that might get lost in a noisy club but that can make a record truly memorable. And would it hurt to do a little pre-production in order to come up with some actual arrangements, instead of the static strumming and banging that fills so many new releases? To my ears, too many discs require me to act as my own producer in order to hear what might be valuable.
A sophisticated studio approach used to be standard operating procedure. This was back in the golden age of recordmaking that the name of Seattles Dusty 45s alludes to before youve even heard them play. The quintets latest album,
Devil Takes His Turn, kicks off with a screaming Ring Of Fire trumpet that soars atop a stampeding and, as things proceed, subtly shifting rhythm section clearly modeled on Elvis late singles. Such attention to texture and detail the delicate acoustic picking on Lonely Fool, the reverby guitar, and both organ and piano parts on the spaghetti surf instrumental Blistering Sky gives the groups original songs, which are always good enough if not exactly future classics, the punch they need to be remembered.
Whats more, the groups cover selections are delightfully unexpected. When was the last time you heard someone do Leiber & Stollers Saved? And the bands take on St. James Infirmary is presented in an arrangement at first moaning and slow, then floored to swing harder than a mofo that grants the 45s temporary ownership of the hoary standard.
Lead singer and (overdubbed) trumpeter Billy Joe Huels has a declamatory, vibrato-laden singing style thats more than a little reminiscent of the Blasters Phil Alvin. He and the band are at their best on the stretched-out ballad Why Darlin Why; Huels roughs up the edges of his voice, and the bands sensitive and soulful rhythm playing leaves enough quiet spaces in the mix for those edges to do their emotional work.
Falls Of Rough, from North Carolinas Cast Iron Skillet, is an entirely different sounding affair but one that shares with the 45s album an appreciation that the studio is a recording acts friend. Two of the finest moments here are instrumentals (just the presence of instrumentals is often a good indicator that a certain level of virtuosity is in play, and that sound and melody are appreciated for their own sake): On the wistful Chronicle, for instance, the band augments its usual guitar-bass-drums with everything from cello, violin and organ to mandolin, banjo and bouzouki.
Falls Of Rough is, at least within the Americana world, a thematically ambitious effort, too. In the booklets notes, each song is identified with a specific character and a year: Murder Makes A Crimson Sky is about Lester Coggins-1931; Power Of My Hands is tied to Rev. Ulysses Monahan-1942; and so on.
But why songs that are meant to capture, in period detail, such long-gone biographies would sound almost contemporary is confusing. Hold Your Heads Up High might be a Copperhead Road outtake; 27 Dollars And A Wedding Ring feels like an Americana version of Stone Temple Pilots (thats a compliment, gang); and Where The River Fades sounds a bit like Bruce Spring-steen, complete with references to the edge of town, the promised land and the river.
Add to these comparisons that vocalist Dustin Edge comes off like Eddie Vedder trying to sound like Raul Malo (or vice versa), and you can accurately predict that Cast Iron Filter writes songs filled with an emotional drama of the desperate last chance power drive variety. Mighty fine songs, too, as it turns out, whether theyre about chasing dreams in a Model T Ford or, in Grayson County, dying with those dreams unfulfilled.
Devil Takes His Turn and Falls Of Rough are both swell albums from bands with real potential. Whats more, theyre the rare alt-country records that try to be records, and succeed.