They're handmade, home-recorded, there's only fifty of them and reallyrather has no.32 - better move swiftly to bag Love your engine by Chad King from boutique label Keep Recordings. Peddling lovingly packaged full-length CDRs of original material at just $6 a go, this admirable new enterprise out of Tucson, AZ. gets pretty close to bullseye with only it's second release. Iron & Wine-meets-J J Cale, anyone?
Well, sort of. Branching out from his main gig Hula, guitarist Chad King has crafted a fine set of low-key, melodic country/folk, or anti-folk if you will. The model ethic of JJ Cale is applied: eleven tunes in a little over half-an-hour, pared of all extraneous detail but still warm and winning. And each one comes with a proper ending, always a good sign; laid back but definite, loose but focused. Most of the tracks share a similar palette: acoustic strumming, dark-hued vocals/harmonies, subtle rhythm section and terrifically atmospheric pedal steel winding around it all like smoke from the embers.
The swaying opener is called Tired which might stand as a motif for the emotional feel of much of this set; sweetly wearied. The folkier Fading glow follows, melting into a beautiful instrumental refrain. And there's plenty more like this - Settle down, Blue as can be, Salt mouth, Forever down - blissful, wistful stuff [check out I'll be all grown up available to hear here].
But it's not all dreamy, languorous folk twang. The shuffling Circle K picks up the tempo and, appropriately enough, Lucky man is positively jaunty. Most stylistcally exceptional of all is Dry your tears, a remarkably authentic slice of country soul which sounds like something Curtis Mayfield and Otis Redding might have cooked up between them; you join in the raspy chorus as if you've know it forever. This sort of thing gives pastiche a good name.
These are home recordings and you can tell but it won't matter. Love your engine isn't about to shake anyone's world but there's plenty here to make you, discerning listener, glow inwardly having found it. The question is: Were this a more 'regular' release retailing at a more 'regular' price, would reallyrather still be as interested? Comfortably, the answer is yes...

The UK release date of Fortune, The Mendoza Line's new album, has been pushed back to May 3. Label Cooking Vinyl is offering a couple of (excellent) preview tracks, and Jenyk was at their NY show last week...

New tracks also available from Shearwater ahead of their 2nd Misra release (Fargo in the UK), Winged Life [site | sounds]. If they're any guide, it's a bit of a shift away from the sombre sonics of Everyone makes mistakes, perkier, more conventional-sounding. It's another Matt Pence production featuring members of Okkervil River, Centro-matic and..Little Grizzly...

..aah the late Little Grizzly. Sad tidings from their website: 'We have come to a very tough decision and have decided to end the band. The final show is on May 1st and will be a big extravaganza featuring some old friends joining us on stage. It will also be the release show for our final CD. Why do so many bands release CDs right when they break up anyway?' Whatever that one's like, everyone should at least have I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared, their raucously poignant belter from '01...

'[They've] delivered a record that is funny, sad, depressing and utterly breathtaking. Yeah, breathtaking.' Phew! Mundane Sounds get kinda excited at discovering the pyschedelic bluegrass of Starlings, TN...

...the belles thebeans the bens the bees the hives the vines the stand the stills the thrills the strokes the shins the whiles...