Notes on a Thursday, a day late

The Down Player

I intended to get this post out on Thursday but, as you know, the best laid plans of mice and men, and all that jazz. This week saw the release of The Civil Wars first full-length album Barton Hollow. I already loved their EP, Poison & Wine and waited with breath baited to hear their full effort. I was not disappointed. I am in love with this album. I am so in love with it, in fact, that upon immediate research and discovery that they would be nearby next week I dropped everything and bought a concert ticket for just little old me, budget bedamned. 



The album is kinda country, kinda alternative . . . enough to be name-dropped by Taylor Swift in her iTunes Celebrity playlist and lauded by Paste magazine as Up and Coming Artists. It's mostly guitar and piano, with male and female vocals from John Paul White and Joy Williams. Their harmonies are incredible, smooth and rippling, tight and jarring all at the right times. They can go from heartbreakingingly poignant and bittersweet ("For Whom it may Concern", just in time for Valentine's Day, dammit) to a rip-roarin' dirty good time in the title track "Barton Hollow." It's all very rural mysterious . . . which is perfect for me because that's kind of my life right now (or would be if there wasn't a foot of snow and ice on the ground and freakin' colder than a well-digger's posterior end).

They're just plain good, ok? So give it a shot.



Legitimate review from:

Paste