\u201cAmericana\u201d has become such a broad genre descriptor that you almost have to go deeper when describing music that falls within its wide boundaries.\u00a0 Yes, the Arlington, Virginia trio Memphis 59 plays rootsy, verse-chorus-verse alt-country-rock, but what do they sound like?\u00a0 How about Steve Earle and the Jayhawks?\u00a0 Paul Westerberg and the Mavericks?\u00a0 Tom Petty & the Old 97s?\u00a0 Or this: honky-tonky rock n\u2019 roll with a twang around the edges that adds depth and character to these songs.<\/p>\n
On this strong debut disc, the considerable talents of vocalist-guitarist Scott Kurt, drummer Chris Zogby and bassist Richard G. Lewis are supplemented by a pair of seasoned pros from Mary Chapin Carpenter\u2019s band \u2013 John Jennings produces and plays guitar and Hammond organ, and Jon Carroll contributes piano and Wurlitzer.\u00a0 The end result is exactly as Jennings described it when he inadvertently gave this album its name \u2013 Ragged But Right<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cMe, Myself And Eyes\u201d set the tone beautifully, an earnest, clever rocker in which Kurt wraps his dusty yet forceful voice around a lyric that dares to pun successfully in the service of an urgent falling-in-love narrative.\u00a0 From there the album is populated with foot-tapping rockers (\u201cBlack And White TV,\u201d \u201cHotel Room,\u201d \u201cKilling Time\u201d) that churn with dynamic changes, tight solos and satisfying payoffs, alternating with quietly appealing laments (\u201cWay With Words,\u201d \u201cPutting Up A Fight\u201d).\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Fresh colors come to the music by way of choices like the slide guitar that lights up the loping, rather Allman Brothers-ish \u201cKnock Me Out\u201d and the jangle-licious, catchy-as-all-get-out \u201cGone,\u201d with its signature line \u201cDon\u2019t be rough on an easy heart \/ \u2019Cause baby, I was gone right from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
The alt-country influence is apparent in lines like the above and song titles like \u201cHeartbreak Luck,\u201d \u201cGirl At The End Of The Bar\u201d (better than it sounds) and \u201cQuit Kickin\u2019 My Heart Around.\u201d\u00a0 The latter is actually only the third-most-obvious Petty reference here, after you get past the group\u2019s focus on jangly, propulsive hooks inside arrangements that feel tight and loose all at once, and the \u201cAmerican Girl\u201d homage that opens \u201cHotel Room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennings is the perfect producer for Memphis 59, adding complementary flourishes to their spare arrangements while respecting and embracing the spacious, beautiful rawness at the core of their sound.\u00a0 The thing about this sort of earnest Americana is that it can come off as contrived unless the songs are both very strong and performed with complete conviction.\u00a0 Here, they are.<\/p>\n
Ragged But Right<\/i> is that and more \u2013 a showcase for one of the strongest new alt-country\/roots-rock acts to come along in many years.\u00a0 Memphis 59 has got the songs, got the sound and got the conviction and chops to back it all up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8526],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41872","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-memphis-59","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41872","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41872"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}