|
|
 |
CD Review
|
| Click Here to go back. |
North Adams Transcript, CD Review >>
By JOHN E. MITCHELL
The CD literally rampages all over you with the rocking country opener "Wild Old Nory" and does not relent for another 48 minutes -- with a particularly wild, screaming fiddle solo that unleashes at the end, the Wilders manage to create a raucous sound from traditional instruments, including dobro, banjo and lap steel, all propelled by a racing rhythm section.
Immediately after this, the zooms into the traditional bluegrass of "Broken Down Gambler" with the same energy, then re-channels the whole presentation for the creepy, blues number "Sittin' On A Jury: Prologue" and finally winds you back up with an easy-going, honky tonk stroll in "My Final Plea."
And it just keeps going and going and going into a relentless frenzy of fiddle and fury.
The band draws heavy influences from old style country -- forget this over-produced, mass market stuff that gets played on FM radio these days, the Wilders are channeling the echoes of the past, pulling from hillbilly and bluegrass of the '20s and '30s, and the kind of old honky tonk that Hank Williams popularized, but many others plied out on the road.
There's a funny thing going on in music nowadays -- you ask some people and they'll talk about the landscape as a dead one, filled with pre-programmed, teen-pandering pop puerile puffery, but you ask others, and they'll say this is the best time for music since the early '80s. Why such a discrepancy? Because the miraculous work that exists is best gleaned from far beyond the mainstream. Bands like The Wilders (and The Decemberists and Gogol Bordello and others) are bringing back traditional craft to music.
Welcome to a multi-faceted world of sound that pulls from 100 years of musical styles and plants them firmly in the 21st Century. The sound of The Wilders is not slavishly retro-noodling -- it's the heart and soul of what was once planted in the body of what is. It's a grin and a beer and a head bob and sway as realized through kille musicianship at the top of their game, capable of twisting the talent around infectious tunes.
Check out The Wilders online at www.wilderscounty.com. 04/18/08 >> go there
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
