Andy Dale Petty – Frick’s Lament
Andy Dale Petty, folk artist and ever-restless transient of the highways and railways of America, occasionally takes a moment from road-wandering, train-hopping, and busking on street corners to record a new album. Recently, Swiss outsider music label Voodoo Rhythm Records released his new full-length, Frick’s Lament. This is Petty’s second record on Voodoo Rhythm, the first being 2008’s All Gods Children Have Shoes. A 12-song folk and country collection, Frick’s Lament is Petty doing what he does best: creating primitive, organic music that a lone troubadour can take on the road and play anywhere. Aside from two songs on the album, the traditional “Train on the Island” and “Steel Guitar Rag/Shake Sugaree,” all of the compositions on Frick’s Lament are originals and exceedingly well-written originals at that, with Petty picking his banjo and guitar and singing.
The album opens with the title track, in which Petty picks his banjo slowly and sings with echoey vocals over simple percussion. There are a couple of wholly impressive instrumentals, too, like “The Building Is Doomed” and “Keraxa Lu’.” In folky songs like “James Burwell,” Andy shows that he is a natural storyteller whose vocal delivery is designed to carry each tale. “Early Modern Times” and “That ‘Ol Day” are more upbeat than some of the others, with a catchy fringe country quality. “Spin Me Around” is akin to an Appalachian picker, while “January Winds” is a rambling folk piece and a fitting closer to the album.
There are moments while listening to Frick’s Lament when it was almost as if Petty were channeling the spirits of old-time greats like Dock Boggs, Buell Kazee, Bert Jansch, and Roscoe Holcomb, among others. Petty just has that old-timey-meets-modern feel to his music that makes him valuable to today’s ongoing roots revival. And Frick’s Lament is evidence that he is a credit to the scene.
Frick’s Lament by Andy Dale Petty is available from Voodoo Rhythm Records on CD and vinyl formats.