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Avg: 4.0 (76 ratings)
- Date Released: January 6, 2009
- Genre: Country/Folk
- Style: Traditional Country, Alternative
- Label: Yep Roc Records / Redeye
Austin's folksy surrealists mix, match and make a joyful noise.
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We Say...
The first time I glanced at the song titles of the Gourds' new Haymaker!, I thought, "Cool, a tune called 'Courtney Love.'" Having made the cover version Hall of Fame years ago with their perfect bluegrass rendition of Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice," I knew the Gourds could sing about anything.
Actually, the album opener is called "Country Love," but it says something about Austin's folksy surrealists is that they could easily frame a song about Hole's singer. The song is a pretty straightforward celebration of rural life, with a slight twist in the key line: "We'll watch the stars dancing with the satellite."
Nothing is quite what it seems in the Gourds' world of impeccably played roots music and outrageous character studies. I keep hearing "Fossil Contender," with its Jaggeresque mewling, as a critique of the contemporary Rolling Stones concert experience, though the lyric deals with archaeologist's uncertainty about what he's just dug up. Haymaker! contains enough perfectly appropriate style exercises to program an Americana station for a day. "All the Way to Jericho" honors Levon Helm and the Band from the get-go; "Hey Thurman" is a tip-of-the-trucker's cap to Mellencamp, though despite a passing reference to "Roky" (probably Erickson), I have no idea what it's about. The old-time country sad-song "Valentine" sounds like a cover from Elvis Costello's "Almost Blue." (Maybe E.C. will invite the Gourds to sing it with him on his cable TV show.)
Everything else pretty much swings and rocks, like the stoned trucker in "Shreveport" blasting Rush in his cab but oozing with contempt for "heavy metal rednecks." You've got to fall in love with the object of the singer's affection in the Cajun roll of "Country Gal," even if her "skin like chocolate milk" makes you wonder which party the Gourds have crashed. As always, lyrics are a funster's delight, and the cultural mix and match of musical styles makes a joyful noise. -
They Say...
There are few bands that can successfully (as in without a hint of clichéd, deep south treacle) open a record with the line "Wake up! We're going to the country," but Kevin "Shinyribs" Russell's ode to the simple (carnal) life splits the difference between hillbilly rapture and secular joy with workmanlike precision, a skill that the Gourds have been applying to their signature brand of idiosyncratic honky tonk for over a decade. The band's ninth album (and second for "smart pop" stronghold Yep Roc Records) continues the Austin-based ensemble's penchant for offbeat Southern minutia and melodious, after-hours juke joint revelry, but despite boasting production values that rival anything before it, Haymaker! feels less like the blow to the face that its title implies and more like a last quick rummage through the basement before the garage sale starts -- to be fair, the band has put out on average an album a year since the late '90s, and even a mediocre Gourds record outshines the majority of Americana/alternative country-rock releases in a given year. Russell provides most of the record's highlights, preaching up a tornado of goodness on "The Way You Can Get," hittin' the town with "Roaches in the ashes/truck jamming "Limelight"/Look like it's gonna be just me and Geddy Lee tonight" on the near-perfect "Shreveport," and rallying the troops on the aforementioned "Country Love," but its' not enough to save Haymaker! from being the most musically unadventurous of the band's highly prolific career, despite the fact that "Back of my head smells like a kick drum" from Jimmy Smith's "Fossil Contender" may be the best lyric of 2009.
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| 01. |  |
Country Love |
2:43 |
|
| 02. | |
Fossil Contender |
3:15 |
|
| 03. | |
The Way You Can Get |
3:47 |
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| 04. | |
Thurman |
2:39 |
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| 05. | |
New Dues |
3:14 |
|
| 06. | |
All the Way to Jericho |
3:53 |
|
| 07. | |
Valentine |
3:45 |
|
| 08. | |
Country Gal |
4:13 |
|
| 09. | |
Bridgett |
3:05 |
|
| 10. | |
Shreveport |
4:10 |
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| 11. | |
Luddite |
3:36 |
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| 12. | |
Tex - Mex Mile |
3:18 |
|
| 13. | |
Blanket Show |
2:47 |
|
| 14. | |
Tighter |
3:09 |
|
14 Total Tracks, 47:34 Total Length
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Credits
- Max Johnston - Guitar (Acoustic) // Max Johnston - Banjo // Max Johnston - Fiddle // Max Johnston - Mandolin // Max Johnston - Vocals // Max Johnston - Lap Steel Guitar // Max Johnston - Guitar (Resonator) // Stuart Sullivan - Mixing // Tim Gerron - Engineer // Keith Langford - Harmonica // Keith Langford - Drums // Keith Langford - Vocals // Jimmy Allen Smith - Guitar (Acoustic) // Jimmy Allen Smith - Bass // Jimmy Allen Smith - Percussion // Jimmy Allen Smith - Guitar (Electric) // Jimmy Allen Smith - Sound Effects // Jimmy Allen Smith - Vocals
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