Pinetop Seven - Bringing Home the Last Great Strike
(Truckstop)
So we're just about ready to cross the autumn barrier. The kids are back in school,
the leaves are getting ready to turn, and the darkness is setting in. Personally, I
love fall. It's a great time for driving around in the country, taking long walks
going nowhere in particular, and pulling out those records that really seem to capture
the coming darkness and all the loneliness and reflection that arrives with it.
A few records seem to color the fall landscape best for me, records that were
either present at some memorable point of autumn, or just seem so autumnal that they
just fit right it, whether I'm out on the porch reading a book or driving down the
Sugarloaf Moutain in the wooded hills of Northeastern PA. Fall favorites? Automatic
for the People, Marquee Moon, James Plotkin and Mark Spybey's Peripheral Blur (among
others), and now the Pinetop Seven's Bringing Home the Last Great Strike.
None of these records really sound terribly similar to one another, but they
do seem to bond over a certain sense of wonder and amazement, an awareness of life, a
tiny bit of fear, and an amazing beauty that perfectly suits the changing seasons.
The Pinetop Seven bring all these things and much more with this, their fourth (and
dare I say best) release.
Bringing Home the Last Great Strike is a fantastic record, and not just
because it fits into my fall listening schedule so well. The songs--all written by
Pinetop Seven leader Darren Richards--are well rendered tales of loss, love, and death that work
so well because they feature Richards' own peculiar twist on the subjects. He's
telling us stories here--stories about carnies, serial killers, and lovers getting
old. Sometimes they're scary, sometimes beautiful, but they all lend themselves
wonderfully to the rich atmosphere the music creates for them.
The music itself is a mix of No Depression country/folk with a small touch of
something I can only think of as creepy carnival music. There is no core band at
play here, just Richards' compositions and any number of musicians contributing to
each. Strings, horns, vibes, and tons of other instruments flow in and out of each
song--a slide here, a banjo there--and Richards' powerful vocal style (kind of a
countrified David Byrne) all invoke the coming darkness so well I find myself
daydreaming of pumpkin patches and county fairs.
It can't be a coincidence that this record is coming out now, a week
before the fall, and though it might sound pretty good if you were to hear it
somewhere down the road, I'm sure you'll find it's the perfect fit for your fall
playlist if you were to go get it right now. Let the Pinetop Seven paint a little
picture of the season for you. I'm sure you won't regret it.
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