OFFICIAL: http://www.alphamulemusic.com/
BANDCAMP: https://alphamule.bandcamp.com/
Written
by David Shouse, posted by blog admin
It’s
hard to be innovative and inventive in traditional genres such as country,
folk, blues, etc. these days. The best
bands and artists playing the old style now manage to win people over by their
sheer passion for the sound and their translation of that passion into the way
that they compose the songs and play the music.
Californian duo Alpha Mule actually bring some uniqueness into this
well-tread genre and drop a diverse set of songs on their first duo offering, Peripheral Vision. With the groundwork of their sound laid by
banjo, acoustic guitar and vocals, they bring a brigade of supporting players
to the table which helps round out their album with a very fully-fleshed,
instrumentally dense take on blues, country, folk, soul and bluegrass originals
inspired by the music of the great southern and western American expanses.
The
roughhewn acoustic guitar ride, bustling banjos and world-worn blues vocals of
opener “Corpus Christi” sets the tone for an impenetrable album overflowing
with southern hospitality. Joe Forkan’s
ebbing acoustic guitar malice and Eric Stoner’s charging banjo ditties congeal
into a perpetual motion tumbleweed roll that doesn’t stop for nothing. Enlivened by Connor Gallaher’s pedal steel,
Steff Koeppen’s honey coated harmony vocals, a dash of harmonica and keys, this
song conjures a hallucinatory peyote sparked vision of the Old West as seen
through modern eyes. “On the Moon” lives
up to its title by sampling Commander Frank Borman’s Apollo 8 commentary during
the outro. The meat of the track moseys
along on the haunches of a saddle-sore upright bass lick (performed by Joey
Burns of Calexico fame), an entangled meshed of multi-tracked acoustic guitars
and hoof clomping banjo pluckin’ that lends the mid-tempo tune a peppy hand
even though it’s among the slower paced cuts on the record.
Next
up is the album’s namesake track and it’s an easy album standout thanks to
deliberate tempos that never move beyond precision toe-tap balladry. Haunting steel guitars mix elegantly into the
acoustic fabric as Stoner’s banjo works up a steady though sparsely notated
sweat that occupies a more rhythmic role than the lead element it often
favors. Forkan’s lead vocals are trembling
with melodic grandeur as they reach some heights that nearly see his voice
cracking under the emotionally harmonic duress.
“The Distance” is a translucent wisp of a tune populated by ghostly
acoustic guitar/banjo surrealism and another sturdy lead vocal from Joe. This is exactly the kind of tune you imagine
to hear while you’re setting up camp for the night. Jacob Valenzuela’s (also of Calexico fame)
howling trumpet, the tumbling hand percussion and Forkan’s increasing emphasis
on his baritone range make for a track born and bred to drench your hard in
serene sadness. It’s a far cry from the
well-bottled, finely aged country n’ 50s rock n’ roll combination felt on the
high proof fun of “Pavlov.” This one’s
all about a blue suede groove with steel, harmonica and a full rhythm section
providing a ready steady backbeat beneath the core duo and their fully realized
framework.
You
could stare all day long and I’ll bet you can’t find a single weak link or
filler track on Peripheral Vision. With each tune opting for a distinctive blend
of influences and fantastic musicianship from the leading duo and everyone that
they choose to surround themselves with, there’s absolutely no reason not to
place this album in the “highly recommended” category.
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