Pale Horse and Rider - Moody Pike
(Darla)
The prolific Jon DeRosa, who also records ambient albums under the name Aarktica, returns with his second full-length country/folk album for Darla. First introduced on the excellent Alcohol EPs (2002, Silber), Pale Horse and Rider gives DeRosa a chance to combine his penchant for emotionally exhausting Nick Drake-styled ballads (as heard on the releases of his other alter ego, Dead Leaves Rising's Waking Up on the Wrong Side of No One (2001, Plow City)), with his fascination with the work of Hank Williams and the Man in Black. His previous release, These are the New Good Times, was recorded in a church in Duluth with snorecore kings Low. This time around, DeRosa and his new backing band—ex-Low/Rivulets member Marc Gartman, who also appeared on the debut and wrote and sings half of this one, ex-Mercury Rev pedal-steel guitarist Gerald Menke, and drummer Mike Pride—set up shop for a week in Kentucky with Palace/Bonnie Prince Billy producer Paul Oldham, "Palace" brother of Will and Ned.
Opening with the wonderful couplet, "We've been naked and close/But don't know last names yet," "Stoned in the Evening" floats into the room on the wings of Menke's pedal steel. Pride's glockenspiel on "Bruises Like Badges" adds an uplifting moment of hope to the soapy ballad. Gartman provides a lighter, crisper voice to the band, not unlike James Taylor, particularly on tracks like "Quarters," while DeRosa's "Annabelle" harks back to his Dead Leaves Rising weepers. The warm, soaring harmonies prevent the latter from disintegrating into an overwrought, mopey, maudlin mess.
"Weight of My Soul," a rather tuneless, meandering jam with "Mule Skinner Blues"-styled yelping, is less successful. It's a commendable attempt to add some heavy blues to the proceedings, but the execution leaves me cold and indifferent. Thus the album's lengthiest track (at 7 1/2 minutes) instills little more than the desire to find the "skip" button. Gartman's wistful "Winter Slides" is a nice recovery. And since no country album is complete without a drinking song, the fitting "The Drinking Boy" wraps the album up quite nicely. It's a tears-in-your-beer weeper, full of nostalgic self pity and loathing. Overall, DeRosa & Co. offer up another winner for barflies, gin-joint denizens, and fans of Gram Parsons and Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska.
|
