Follow up to Celilo Falls, this self titled album by Rachel Harrington & The Knockouts is an exercise in blue collar beer drinking country conventionality from an all girl band, no less. Not modern day country, of course, but a somewhat wistful look back to the days when country was country.
The danger here would be that this would be more of a pastiche than an album inspired by days gone by. However, we are talking Rachel Harrington here and she isn’t one to let an opportunity go by without taking full advantage. The songs, therefore, cleverly resemble the words of others whilst being entirely original. I felt the urge to buy a pickup truck and some George Jones cassettes whilst listening to “Love Him Or Leave Him To me” whilst “I’d Like To Take This Chance” gave me a Barbara Mandrell moment (as an aside, I always had a thing for the Mandrell sister that liked to play with guns). It’s not all tears and whiskey though with “Nothing To Do But You” being practically The Rolling Stones go country and a smile was raised by the amusing and cleverly relevant lyrics to “Hippie In My House”.
So if you find yourself waiting at the truck stop of life then you now have a soundtrack that doesn't insult your intelligence.