Fletcher Harrington, Eyes on Fire & Knuckles Sore (Lopie Records, 2001)
If you often buy from the "Male Vocalist" Country 'n' Western section of your favorite CD store, go straight to the web site below and don't read any further. I on the other hand have no sympathies for that sort of thing, and this review follows accordingly.
Fletcher Harrington is yet another cowboy recording songs in California. Backing him are the lackluster efforts of yet another C'n'W ensemble, Cowboy Buddha. At the time of my writing this, these two are the featured acts at the web site of Lopie Productions. The web site itself is an indicator of the quality of product that it peddles. The first thing brought to your attention is the fact that Lopie will handle your music for you (for a stiff up-front payment, I imagine). That's followed by a lot of glittery hype, and best of all are the tacky "Eat at Joe's" style ads at the end. It's enough to give Roots-loving folk like me nightmares about promoters with toupees and cigars.
Eyes on Fire is just plain old bad Nitty Gritty Dirt Band cloning. The songs have been pummeled into the commercial honky-tonk mold, featuring an obnoxious in-your-face drum and lyrics that set like the same old greasy spoon blue plate special does in your stomach.
Most of the lyrical apples don't fall far from the my-woman-left-me-then-my-truck-died tree. The remainder are exemplified by songs like "With a Shape Like Yours," which begins "I like a woman with a shape like yours / I like a woman that'll stroke my nerves / To make me crazy and completely wild / I like a woman that'll hold her ground" et cetera ad nauseam.
The only song with a trace of humanity is "Could It Be So Wild," which is about trying to re-establish a relationship after a lot of dumbass shit went down. However, this one is still nine parts agony in the country sound cliche vein to one part soul and expression.
The only thing "alternative" about this CD is the fact that Fletch usually couldn't get his act together to say his piece inside the two and a half minute limit dictated for commercial radio air play.
For what they're worth, Lopie Record's web site is here and Cowboy Buddha's site is here.
