Jeff Plankenhorn
Alone At Sea
Blue Corn Music
Texan Alt. Country Folk Rock Filtered through a Cool Canadian Copper Still
As I really liked Plankenhorn’s 2018 release SLEEPING DOGS, skim through the accompanying Press Release would have made we want to hear it because a) the legendary Colin Lindon (Blackie and the Rodeo Kings) produced it and b) numerous acts featured on RMHQ at one time or another are either helping out here or have been associates over his career … not least one Ray Wylie Hubbard!
None of that is worth a thing if these songs don’t ‘cut the mustard’ and they most certainly do that … and then some!
I doubt I’m alone in deciding if I’m going to be ‘in or out’ via an album’s opening song; and here the hauntingly passionate Bird Out on The 9th certainly caught my attention from the start. I’m stumped for finding someone to compare Jeff Plankenhorn with as this song and what follows is cross pollinated by many different genres from Folk Rock through Americana until it comes out of the exhaust pipes of Alt. Country with consummate ease.
One of the best things about these songs is having to decipher them and take out what we will to suit our musical needs, (I’m thinking The Mess) and sometimes you just have to go with the flow and let them live a life of their own while you nod your head and tap your foot along with the melody.
That’s certainly the case with the mesmerising title track Alone At Sea which combines a Folk Singers’ poetic sensibilities with a razor sharp melody and an arrangement that will send a shiver down your spine the first time you hear it.
Sadly, in my opinion Jeff Plankenhorn is best known for his slide-guitar playing, which is genuinely top notch; but there is so much more to be gained by listening to his songs and the lyrical excellence throughout Bluer Skies, the sadder than sad heartbreaker, You’ll Stay or the Blues Deluxe stomper Maybe Its Not Too Late which is a song that can be taken literally!
Just when I thought I’d probably heard every subject imaginable turned into a song; Plankenhorn regales us with the quirky Rocker, Flat Tyre! In fairness it could be a metaphor for life …. but it could be a straightforward song about a trucker with a Flat Tyre!
I hesitate to use the word ‘cool’ when reviewing as one mans’s ‘cool’ is another man’s ‘pretentiousness’ but to me there’s no better way to describe either of the two songs I’m deliberating between for my Favourite Song.
Do a Little Dancing is deceptively simple in a John Prine/Justin Townes Earle manner, as once you scrape away the ‘cute’ veneer supplied by the melody; Plankenhorn’s words take you on a trip the Voodoo arena of Americana music …. try it, you’ll like it.
The other, Juggling Sand is a Stones alike constrained rifferama from either (or both) their Exile on Main Street or Goats Head Soup eras that went some way to defining modern day Rock and Roll, and this song could and should be a perfect fit for whatever claims to be Rock Radio in 2023.
Jeff Plankenhorn certainly isn’t the most prolific of recording artist, with this being his sixth album in 21 years; but as my dear Dad used to say; “Quality over quantity wins.”
Released 29th September 2023
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The Rocking Magpie 