(Broken Records 2016)
Ditch Stomp
Horseplay
Cannibal Ballad
4 Wheel Drive
Ghost Train
Slashburner
710 vs 420
Whiskey Smoke
Truck Driving Wildman
Musky Jacks
Yankee Yell
Street Ratt
Mongers Song
White Horse
I'd not heard of The Ditchrunners before this sexy little digipak alighted on my plush red carpet during the week. The title suggested it was a German band as did the record label...Broken Neck, a subsidiary of Crazy Love. Alas, I couldn't have got the whole shebang more arseways. Turns out The Ditchrunners are in fact from the US of A, Wisconsin to be precise....Stevens Point to be preciserer!! It also turns out the band have been around for a few years and this particular album since 2013...but this version has more ditties o' delight and that version was called Rips From The Ditch...which is the English translation! They're a four-piece outfit that describe their sound as "Honky Tonkin' Gypsy Gutter Grass" and have a list of contributing members so long that it wouldn't fit on a roll of wallpaper. Anyway, having had no preconceived notions before slipping this in to the CD player, I was immediately kicked in the man-purse by the opening instrumental. A rousing piece of rustic stomp. But, all too often, great players are let down by shite vocalists. Buckshot Bredlau is NO shite vocalist. He's a fucking EXCELLENT vocalist. Gravelly and baritone. I was always drawn to bands who had a more ballsy approach to American roots music. The Skiff Skats in the 80s, The Tokyo Skunx in the 90s. Bands like Custom Made Scare in the Noughties. Bands like the Urban Pioneers now. Then I hear these guys (and girl) and fuck me I love em. Yankee Yell was making me skull vibrate for fuck sake! If you made a list of every form of American roots music ever and swapped out those original watered down (by the powers that be) artists and gave that list to a pack of deranged musicians with a penchant for the maniacal then this would be the resultant album.
The O'Prez
No comments:
Post a Comment