Ware River Club – The Bad Side Of Otis Ave.
On their debut disc, Ware River Club moves effortlessly from rockin’, stompin’ bar-band fare to cry-in-your-beer country, with solid songwriting always a part of the mix.
Singer-songwriters Matt Herbert and Matt Cullen have assembled a crackerjack band of veteran musicians from the thriving New England alt-country scene. Drummer Keith Levreault (ex-Blood Oranges) and bassist Ray Mason (Lonesome Brothers) provide a rockin’ foundation for Herbert and Cullen’s guitars and vocals, while the mandolin and banjo of Bob Hennessey (Angry Johnny & the Killbillies) along with pedal steel and dobro from special guest Doug Beaumier, keep the music firmly rooted in country.
Herbert and Cullen write about small town working-class lives, painting pictures of real people trying to get by, looking at love coming and going, and looking to get out. The father who can’t talk after 50 years of smoking sounds familiar, and I think I’ve met that overweight young woman at the bar who works graveyard at the 7-11.
A lot of this record is fun, but it’s the heartaches that really hit the mark. No song does so more than “Wanna Be With You”, a song about Cullen’s late sister. She’s always in his thoughts, and when he sings of how her beauty still lives in her children’s eyes, it’s one of the more poignant moments I’ve heard on record in awhile.