Kristian Montgomery & The Winterkill Band
Lower County Outlaw
Self Release
Alt. Country Meets Indie Rock In a Blues Club On The Wrong Side of Town.
This was the second album that I received on the same day last week, where both had been released in 2023 and somehow I’d missed them first time around – which I’m totally blaming on my ongoing problems with Outlook e-mails #Grrrr
Back in my teens and probably a few years afterwards, it certainly wasn’t uncommon to buy an album that was a year or two old; but in these streaming days, it’s worrying to think what the industry deems to be a ‘shelf-life’ for an album.
Here, I’m several months behind the game, but both acts, including Kristian Montgomery are still keen to know what we think; so basking in such flattery – here goes.
Gipsy Girl is everything I want in an opening track; punchy, powerful and eminently ‘listenable’ too, even hinting at what is to follow, if the nice man at Goldrush Records had played this for me, I’m tempted to think I’d have purchased the album on just hearing that one song.
(Remember those days?)
Although coming from Boston Mass. Kristian Montgomery and The Winterkill Band sound like they’ve been brought up on a steady diet of Southern Rock and Bon Jovi on a Sunday; but never actually sounding like any one band in particular.
The second track 4th of July is borderline ‘vicious’ the way Montgomery’s vocals stretch in competition with some damn fiery guitar playing that comes from the Stevie Ray Vaughan/Tom Petty school of ‘less is more’ dynamics.
The more I’ve played LOWER COUNTY OUTLAW the less confident I’ve become trying to find a record store pigeon hole that it will fit comfortably in. There are certainly hints of Alt. Country in both the lyrics and melody in Annie Pay Your Band and What’s Real too; but there’s a clue in the title of The Long Gone Blues that certainly points to a band steeped in Blues Rock of one form or another; but in Montgomery’s defence there’s an Indie Rock spine that all of these things spin off …. leaving us with a band that will please a lot more people than they disappoint, especially with songs like the riffarama Lost In Memphis and the salacious A Little Lower in their locker.
Played in sequence this is an album that you will trust to stick on repeat, whether that’s in your home or car too … especially the latter.
There’s a fabulous ‘tightness’ to this band, one that comes from many hours and miles honing their craft; which all comes together on songs like Around and Around, Somebody’s Baby Mama and the gutsy The Girl With Gauges In Her Ears which all sound like ‘Heritage Rock’ songs; but are brand new songs for your ears.
I’ve slowly managed to select two songs to compete to be my Favourite Song; Submit To My Transmission is as rich and slow as Double Cream and just as tasty too; and nowhere near as smart-arse as the song title initially suggested.
The other; and song that just scrapes the title by a hairs breadth is the passionate heartbreaking love song Easy To Forget You When You’re Gone; something that I wouldn’t have been too surprised to have heard on a Skynard or even Little Feet album way back when; it really is that good.
In a parallel universe Kristian Montgomery and The Winterkill Band would be headlining Glastonbury, or filling out racetracks across the USA; but sadly life’s not that fair …. but I can only fantasise about seeing them supporting and blowing the headline band off stage or better still, playing a sweaty basement club on the wrong side of town, on a stiflingly hot Summer’s evening, which is where they will be at the finest.
Released August 2023
https://kmwkb.com/
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https://kristianmontgomeryandthewinterkillband.bandcamp.com/album/lower-county-outlaw
The Rocking Magpie 