For this debut from ex-Groobee Scott Melott’s new band, many curious listeners are going to come for the “produced by Alejandro Escovedo” credit on the back of the disc, but they’re going to end up staying for the songs. That’s because Melott has put together a solid bunch of ’em, while calling on a sound that, depending on the decade, would get labeled folk-rock, roots-rock, or Americana.
In fact, next time someone asks for a definition of Americana music, cue the Dead End Angels’ “If You Want It That Much”. With its punchy blend of acoustic guitar, lap steel and piano accented by a string trio, this tale of competing addictions makes a strong exhibit A.
“Wrecked And Beautiful” bears the most noticeable Escovedo thumbprint — he cowrote the song with the band, and you could imagine it getting the cranked-up Buick MacKane treatment — but it’s a faint one.
The album’s heart and soul are, respectively, “Heather’s Prayer” and “Red Letter Bible”. The former is a flood lament that’s a perfect companion piece to the Bottle Rockets’ “Get Down River” in both tone and tale (“Standing in mud where the porch used to be/The river came up past the magnolia tree”), with Rick Poss’ mandolin doing its best to fight the rushing water. The latter, written by Austin singer-songwriter Neal Kasanoff, is as curiously likable as its tattooed protagonist, a chain-and-dope-smoking barroom evangelist who confronts the same questions wrestled with by all but the most God-sur