You know what’s wrong with country music these days? Well, nothing if your ears have made the acquaintance of Miranda Lambert (sigh!) but if you have suffered “bro” country or, God forbid, country rappers then you will get to thinking that Hank Williams – or even Scottish country legend Willie Sutherland - would surely return from the grave just to drop a dime and buy said tuneless travesties a one way ticket to the pig farm. Pigs eat anything, even country rappers, although it is said that the resulting bacon tastes about as good as their songs sound.
Anyway, country music is a blue collar thing and The Trusty Snakes, with their album “New American Frontier”, appear to have learned that simple truth and adapted it for the Armageddon generation. Their songs are also full of the kind of irony laden lyrics that mark them as a band with their finger on the pulse of the fractured wrist of today rather than mere worshippers of potential roots festival bookings and, instead of rose tinted reflections, you get off kilter murder ballads like “When the Night Train Runs Low”, enough drug references to get your pickup truck pulled over by the police, manic interludes like “Country Home” and hard edged Bobbie Gentry parodies like “Fishing For Uncle Sam”. All this is in their check shirt game and The Trusty Snakes play it well.
Ending the album on a serious note with the quasi biblical “Trouble Times” proves that The Trusty Snakes also have the heart, and prayer book, to go traditional when they want to but it is their distinctly oblique humour that ultimately gives this album its appeal.
Bizarrely, this album is even available on cassette.
Best song? The epic bloodletting of “When The Night Train Runs Low”.
The verdict? All pickup trucks should be sold with a copy of this album. And a gun.
Available from Bandcamp.