Freakwater
Scheherazade
Bloodshot Records
Their first record in more than a decade sees
alt.country stalwarts Freakwater back to their dissonant best, an album that
rumbles with a menacing intent as it lurches left and right, sometimes straight
and true, mostly through gnashed teeth as it tries to birth itself onto some
old bar room floor in time for last call.
Based around the vocal harmonies of
Janet Bean and Catherine Irwin, as it has been since the band's inception in
Louisville in the late '80s, Scheherazade grows from country roots
(The Asp and the Albatross, Skinny Knee Bone, Missionfield), but
manages to branch out into '60s-era psych (Down Will Come
Baby), eerie gothic (Falls of Sleep, Ghost Song) and backwoods grass
(What the People Want).
A crack session band, among them the Dirty Three's
Warren Ellis contributing haunting fiddle and flute, flesh the sound out as
Bean and Irwin concentrate on their intertwining voices – a combination that
sometimes soars, sometimes fights in the dirt but always makes an odd sort of sense.
Which in a way, encapsulates the entire album. One of the best modern
interpretations of country music I've heard.
4/5
Samuel J. Fell
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