Jenny Don’t & The Spurs
Fire on The Ridge
Fluff and Gravy
High Octane Punk Imbued Insurgent Barroom Country
While I love doing this reviewing malarkey every now and again I get a ‘dip’ after listening to one too many singer-songwriters singing about broken relationships and/or the state of the world around us.
Individually these albums are generally very good; but when it’s my 9th or 10th of the week; I sometimes have to put a Leonard Cohen album on the stereo to cheer myself up.
That wasn’t the case two weeks ago when I picked up this disc; even the cover artwork made me smile and led me to believe that the contents would be even more favourable … I was correct.
The title track comes at you like a cornered wildcat ….. the high octane guitars certainly compliment Ms Don’ts hot and pearlescent vocals on a song that never stops to take breath.
The pace drops on track #2, the heartbreaker, California Cowboy and sounds like the type of song a band would keep to the end of a set and become what my Dad used to call a ‘bum hugger’ …. you know; the type of song couples drag each other around a dancefloor clinging on to each other for dear life.
While every song here has been a fabulous ‘surprise’ they shouldn’t be; as the bands’ name and artwork lead you into the type of punk infused Country and Western music the industry tells you isn’t commercial anymore …. but how wrong are they?
While drawing on Classic Country influences like Patsy, George and possible Hank Jr; these crazy cats owe more to the Waco Brothers and The Clash as bonafide influences!
Regardless of which country and backroads you will drive around with this on the car stereo, songs like Foolish Lies, Johnny Vagabond and the fearsome finale Queen of The Desert will make you think you are scooting around areas in Tennessee that your Mother warned you against entering!
Obviously everything here revolves around Jenny’s distinctive and dare I say it; ‘special’ voice; the individual band members aren’t just sitting in the background; Kelly Halliburton – bass and Buddy Weeks on drums, create a rock solid backdrop that allows Jenny and Christopher March – lead guitar, lap steel guitar; the freedom and confidence to sing and play the way God intended them to use their talents.
As you’d expect on a proper Country album there are plenty of ‘done em wrong’ songs here, with the 80mph She’s Not The One and Train Ticket being absolute belters and a lot more memorable than 90% of what I hear on Absolute Country radio.
To all intents and purposes this is an album that you put on the stereo to take you into a whole other universe than the one you really live in; which brings me to the three songs that have ben vying to be my Favourite Song.
The swoonsome, Friday Night never stops making my bottom lip tremor as Jenny purrs as she pores her heart out as she no longer looks forward to Friday Night the way she used to as he beau might not be the man she hoped he’d be.
Then; there’s Foolish Lies, which obviously follows a similar thread; only this time it’s Jenny who’s the subject of local gossip; leaving you to decide if she did or didn’t kiss that handsome stranger when her man was away.
The more I play the album the feisty punk guitar infused Trouble on My Mind pulls ahead of the quality field every time I hear it and I think it will be the same for you too, so this is my official Favourite Track; but could easily be displaced next week.
Historically bands like Jenny Don’t and the Spurs would be the type of band that were great ‘live’ but struggled to sprinkle that fairy duct on to their records; but somehow or other they have managed it here; leaving casual listeners thinking ‘can they live up to these high standards on stage?’ I think we all know the answer; don’t we?
UK DATES
12.04.23 LIVERPOOL Leaf tickets
13.04.23 NEWCASTLE The Cluny
14.04.23 GLASGOW Broadcast * tickets
15.04.23 HIGH WYCOMBE Ramblin’ Roots Revue tickets
16.04.23 LONDON Boogaloo info/free entry
17.04.23 HASSOCKS Mid-Sussex Music Hall * tickets
18.04.23 LONDON The Grace * tickets
*with Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires
Released March 17th 2023
https://www.jennydontandthespurs.com/
BUY DON’T SPOTIFY
https://jennydontandthespurs.bandcamp.com/merch
https://jennydontandthespurs.bandcamp.com/album/fire-on-the-ridge
The Rocking Magpie 