This self-titled album is, I think, the fifth release under the Woody Pines moniker (a follow-up to 2013’s stellar Rabbits Motel), and his first on the underground Nashville label Muddy Roots. On this outing the band consists of the versatile Skip Frontz, Jr., on doghouse bass, and Brad Tucker on guitars. Woody himself plays guitar (mostly a resonator) and harmonica and sings in his distinctive laconic tenor that falls somewhere between Michael Hurley and Pokey LaFarge. The music belongs somewhere on that same spectrum, too, a mix of Jimmie Rodgers-style hobo blues, Delmore Brothers’ hillbilly boogie and swingin’ acoustic takes on some of the more obscure back pages of the American songbook.
I confess right off the bat that I couldn’t decide on one video clip for this review. My predilection for down-tempo, sad music leads me to the marvelous, mildly melancholy love song “Stella Blue,” with Woody fingerpicking his resonator, Brad playing languid fills on the slide and Skip’s lightly swinging walking bass. The feel of this one reminds me of the early roots music of Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder. Here’s a live studio version:
But I’ve also got a soft spot for hot jazz and the standards of the aforementioned American songbook, and boy do Woody and the boys nail it on “Walking Stick,” by some guy named Berlin. The CD version features longtime Woody associate Billy Contreras on fiddle and some really hot licks on the resonator; the video version has just the trio, and Brad doubling his slide solos on the kazoo. Both are equally swinging.
You just can’t beat this music with a stick. In addition to the two gems above, there’s a calypso-rhythm arrangement of the old folk chestnut “Junco Partner,” a swampy cover of the Mississippi Sheiks’ Southern stringband classic “Make It To The Woods,” and a smokin’ version (including a superb slap-bass solo from Frontz) of “Black Rat Swing” by Memphis bluesman the late Ernest Lawlars. Tucker gets good and dirty on the slide guitar on Woody’s song “Delta Bound,” a bluesy paean to the joys of going home to the Delta. This one has some nifty internal rhyming scattered throughout: “I been a rover, now that’s over, knee-deep in clover I can be found, I’m tired of roamin’, that’s why I’m homin’, I’m delta bound…” Woody goes pretty much solo except for some droning fiddles on the final track “Worth The Game.” It’s a lovely folk ballad with a hint of Celtic lilt in those fiddles.
So far I haven’t mentioned what’s probably the high point of the album, “This Train Rolls By,” a bluesy, swampy testament to the lonely life on the road - whether you’re a hobo or a troubadour. I don’t often quote from the publicity material, but in this case it’s highly appropriate and I’ll close with it: “When Woody Pines sings ‘when the train rolls by, I get a faceful of rain,’ this isn’t some hipster dilettante twisting a faux-handlebar mustache and singing about old-timey railroads, this is a dedicated student of Woody Guthrie who used to hop freight trains to get from town to town. This is serious roots music that’s as much a way of life as an aesthetic choice.”
(Muddy Roots, 2015)
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