Butchers Blind<\/a> frontman Pete Mancini, offers another showcase for his terrific songwriting chops, to be sure, but the inclusion of three covers only underscores my central takeaway: Mancini\u2019s plaintive Everyman voice is an absolutely perfect fit for the kind of music he makes\u2014indie-inflected Americana that\u2019s deceptively simple and devastatingly honest. <\/p>\nInterestingly, Foothill Freeway<\/i> features among its large cast of players the rest of Butcher\u2019s Blind (Brian Reilly on bass, Paul Anthony on drums and harmony vocals, and Christopher Smith on piano), and opens with a cover tune. Not just any cover, though; as its title immediately suggests to anyone familiar with the history of the country-rock, \u201cSweethearts of the Rodeo\u201d is a virtual mission statement for this album, recounting the moment the genre was invented by a group of folk-rocking hippies gone to Nashville: \u201cMcGuinn, Hillman and Parsons \/ Never looking back \/ They changed the world \/ How could they know?\u201d Composer Russ Seeger helps out on fiddle here and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Themes thus established\u2014this album leans considerably more to the country-folk side of Mancini\u2019s Americana than the blues-rock side heard more prominently in Butcher\u2019s Blind\u2014Mancini unveils a gem of a tune in \u201cYou\u2019re Gonna Change,\u201d heavy on both banjo and fiddle as our narrator draws a line in the sand for his increasingly distant lover: \u201cI\u2019m sick to death of all the secrets \/ The thoughts behind your eyes \/ It stops today, you\u2019re gonna change \/ Or I\u2019ll be gone before tonight.\u201d Mancini\u2019s craftsmanship really shines in the last minute when he arranges a nifty \u201cduet with self,\u201d singing both lead and harmony down to the close.<\/p>\n
Mancini presents Wes Houston\u2019s \u201cHigh Wind Slick Roads\u201d as a true duet, with sweet harmony vocals by Cassandra House and a nice turn from Skip Krevens on pedal steel. Gentle as it is, it sets the scene nicely for the more anthemic \u201cThe Hardest Way To Part,\u201d a catchy number that offers this bit of hard-earned wisdom: \u201cAnd you hope that she still loves you \/ But she made it hard to tell \/ When you learn how to love \/ You forget to love yourself.\u201d <\/p>\n
The title track arrives as an unadorned, novelistic song tracing the story of a working man from a broken home, trying to recapture lost innocence while driving the roads of his youth. It\u2019s nostalgic and evocative at first, growing darker and more intense until a haunting final verse that highlights the thread tracing back from this one to Bruce Springsteen\u2019s Nebraska<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo Be Alive\u201d features House again on harmony vocals, an upbeat number with a bittersweet undercurrent (\u201cThe more we laugh \/ The more we feel alone\u201d). The arrangement counterpoints the lyric nicely, as Mancini offsets the philosophical bent of his words with playful banjo and handclaps. \u201cKnowlton County Township\u201d offers a countrified reimagining of Springsteen\u2019s \u201cDarlington County,\u201d albeit one that feels more Faulkner than Bruce. Both feel present in \u201cRented Room,\u201d a spare, somber piano ballad, with Jonathan Preddice\u2019s cello providing color as Mancini sings of a trucker viewing \u201cBurnt out mills and factory plains \/ Families living out in the street\u201d before concluding that \u201cWe can\u2019t keep pretending we\u2019re someone we\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mancini finishes strong, first tackling Iain Matthews\u2019 loose yet thoughtful \u201cCartwheel Avenue\u201d with an assist from Matthews himself, before closing with the wistful \u201cSomething Missing.\u201d The latter features acoustic and mandolin much of the way before delivering a warm, limber electric solo with a firm nod in the direction of George Harrison. <\/p>\n
Mancini\u2019s solo debut delivers richly imagined songs that both honor and extend the Americana and singer-songwriter traditions, beautifully matching Voice with voice. With a deep sense of purpose and tremendous craft, Mancini catalogues the foibles and failings of men and women, lovers and nations, a tapestry of all-too-human humanity.<\/p>\n
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