REWOLFINGER – how we lost our way
(CD, konkord)
Trash Country does not really
hit the mark, but it hits the spot. The right spot. My instant “hey, I
like that” spot. I am a redneck by heart and in summer also outwardly, as
can be easily seen when looking at my neck burned red from the sun from
doing outside work. Painting the stable doors, drawing up fences, being out
in the field caring for the crop. And in the evenings I sit down on my
porch, get a cool beer and pick old country tunes on the guitar. It is all
true, I swear. Rewolfinger have been around for some time and busy fuelling
the fire of country music in Austria, refining their mix of styles and
probably had no time driving the big rigs in the field or going into the
woods chopping blocks. It is bad for the fingerpicking if your hands are
swollen and calloust anyway. I cannot tell about the live these dudes live
for real around here, but I have seen real live bisons. I dare you to call
me a liar!
I read the paper every week,
and so I read all those stories about what the devil and alcohol do to men
and women alike. Crime, sex, traffic accidents, violence, adultery, beer and
shots, family feuds and psychopaths – it all happens right there everyday
around us. Husband gets lost christmas evening and is found two days later
still completely drunk in a little tent he built up in the woods, about two
miles from his house. When there is a weapon in the house, somebody is bound
to get shot sooner or later, family or stranger, the gun doesn’t care. And
in the place where I come from every other man is officially a hunter, guns
everywhere. The fuel that fills country music is the same that makes our
blood rush through our veins. Live and country music are about the same
things after all: love, hate and death. And also the desert in all of us,
that already shot bolts of fear into Nietzsche, when he dared to take a
deeper look. And then decided he’d rather get insane than think about it
longer.
Rewolfinger pack all these
stories that live writes, of lust, hate, passion, anger and drunken stupor
into great melodies all of which have that basic americana country feel. But
then they add Mariachi trumpets, eastern folklore (not too far away from
Texas anyway), bluegrass and the old punk attitude of “if you do it, do it
right”. And the other punk attitude of not giving a shit as well. Then
they call it “20 miles to Texas, 25 to hell” and all of their characters
are bound to go the extra fiver. The music this seven piece produces here on
their second album “how we lost our way” is addictive in its execution.
Only the singing is a little too soft at times, I miss the grits and the
guts and the gravel in it. For instance only when the second voice takes
over on “when I was a young man” the song starts to make sense, though I
like the violin on that one from the beginning to end. And also the electric
guitar trashing.
“How we lost our way” is a
great album of beerdrinking music by a great beerdrinking band. What else
may you ask for, stranger?
