What would happen if the Indigo Girls went rockabilly?<\/p>\n
The answer might lie in the debut release from The Damnations
\nTX,
\nHalf Mad Moon<\/i>. This Texas-based quartet hits the target on
\nsome tracks, but they often show the growing pains a young band
\ngoes through.<\/p>\n
The group – vocalist\/bassist Amy Boone, vocalist\/guitarist
\nDeborah Kelly, guitarist\/vocalist Rob Bernard and drummer Keith
\nLangford – maintain a country air to their music without turning
\ntheir backs on alternative rock or folk. The mixture is one that
\nwould, on paper, seem to be an interesting amalgam, at the very
\nleast.<\/p>\n
Opening with the country-rock mixture of “Unholy Train,” there
\nquickly seems to be some promise to The Damnations TX, even though
\nI would have liked to have heard the band stretch things out a
\nlittle bit with even a rudimentary guitar solo. Still, simplicity
\nisn’t a bad way to introduce one’s self to the populace.<\/p>\n
There are times on this relatively short album (the 12 tracks
\nclock in at under 40 minutes) that things seem to keep going the
\ngroup’s way. “Commercial Zone Blues” is a quirky, catchy number
\nthat is one you’re sure to keep returning to. “Kansas” and “Down
\nThe Line” are captivating in their rollicking style, while “No Sign
\nOf Water” is one track that reminds me a lot of the Indigo Girls,
\nespecially in Boone and Kelly’s harmony vocals.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there are many songs on
\nHalf Mad Moon<\/i> that show this band needs to tighten up their
\nsongwriting a bit. “Spit And Tears” just leaves a bad taste in my
\nmouth, and needed a little more development and less key changes.
\n“Jack’s Waltz” is a track that had a lot of promise in the
\nbeginning, but quickly unraveled into a disappointing country
\nwaltz. (Not that country waltzes are bad; this song needed another
\ncoat of paint or two to really be better.)<\/p>\n
In the end, the overall feeling you might walk away with from
\nHalf Mad Moon<\/i> is indifference. For each killer track like
\n“Things I Once Adored” or quirky but enjoyable number like “Half
\nMad Moon,” there is an equally disappointing track like “Black
\nWidow”. The solution seems to be giving The Damnations TX a chance
\nto grow as musicians and as songwriters, something that only comes
\nwith time together and experience. I do hear a lot of promise in
\nthis group; unfortunately, they’re not always able to deliver the
\ngoods on
\nHalf Mad Moon<\/i>.<\/p>\n
There are enough good moments on
\nHalf Mad Moon<\/i> that make me say this is a group worth
\nwatching in the years to come. But this album is kind of like
\nwalking through a horse’s stable barefoot. The good moments are
\nlike feeling cool, fresh grass under your feet. I’ll let you
\ncomplete the metaphor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7407],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-38997","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-damnations-tx","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38997"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38997"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}