Prinz Grizzley
Dear Leftovers
DoWhWa Records
Wise and Occasionally Profound Classic Country Straight Outta Austria!
Classic Country music via a man born in the small village of Egg, Western Austria?
Surely not?
But, do you know what? It’s darn good.
Recorded under the unlikely name of Prinz Grizzley singer-songwriter Chris Comper as he is known at home, ticks all the boxes.
After completing building his own house for him, his wife and year-old child in 2022 he settled down to record, Dear Leftovers.
The album’s title comes due to his previous albums, Come On In, To My Green Mountain Home and having some songs left unused and deserving a home.
Comper writes about stubbornness, warmth of heart, personal growth, and living part of a very simple life, some with religious traits making his tales vivid, and hugely evocative.
Loaded in addictive Hawaiian guitar and superb country lead guitar he opens his latest record with striking ballad, Corrina, which is Country music as it was many moons ago… pure, entertainment from first to last he delves into the importance of connection.
Take My Pride…and Let Me Go, he sings a song steeped in pedal steel guitar creating a shuffle in the vein of an old, Hank Williams song.
Comper/Grizzley cites the likes of John Fogerty (CCR), John Hiatt, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Rolling Stones and the Beatles being influences growing up.
Picking up the tempo Prinz Grizzley hits the road running on Got Nothing To Prove, which is neatly Country through and through.
One ‘wee’ gem follows another here, Wicked Heart is warmed in a stout rhythm and even more delightful pedal steel guitar and barroom hues in his writing that makes few concessions to today’s style of Country Music.
“Wicked heart
Words don’t come easy, even when you treat me bad.
Every man who loves a woman must be a little mad.
I know you’re laughing at me when you’re out with your friends,
killing happy hours, telling them I obey your command,
but when you’re stuck beneath a spinning wheel, attention is hard to steal.”
Watch The Embers has a wonderful feel as Prinz Grizzley sings of laying on the floor and watching everything come crashing down in a crumbling relationship.
His distinctive singing voice eases through the lyrics with ease. After playing it a few times now, this particular song hints of a name from the past, Joe Sun.
Now that’s some compliment btw.
Next, Woman Don’t has a lovely quirkiness to it, as some wacky instrumental wailing notes fuel this bustling ode.
Slowing things down, to where his voice is the focal point, Don’t Me Blame For Loving You is perfect for a sunny day as it shuffles along nicely; while Prinz Grizzley delivers a message concerning relationships.
The ups and downs, and I love the emotional content that eases from his tones.
Trucker Love mixes trucking Country with Western primed fare, as the singer speaks of long hauls, passing through the country in his big eighteen wheeler. Steeped in more crying pedal steel it grabs the imagination of the listener; so much so, I swear my chair tilted as he took the curves.
With regret, remorse maybe in his voice Where Did We Go Wrong is steeped in the passionately charged passages, giving us the realisation of it been over … the good times now gone displayed in every syllable.
Shaking things up He Ain’t Me has the pedal steel dancing now alongside a rocking lead electric Twang Country guitar as Grizzley states the obvious regarding a broken relationship.
Much Too Sober finds him delivering one of his finest vocal displays on the album; creating a song where he holds court on another doomed (or soon to be) relationship.
Wonderful stuff.
“Bartender, pour me another… Make that a double”.
Now this guy really does know what ‘real’ Country Music is!
Or should that be Euro Country?
Review by our Man From Havana; Maurice Hope
Released May 31st 2024
https://prinzgrizzley.com/
BUY DON’T SPOTIFY
https://prinzgrizzley.bandcamp.com/track/wicked-heart
The Rocking Magpie 