Lou Ford – Alan Freed’s Radio
The guys in Charlotte, North Carolina, band Lou Ford have always favored the term “rural pop” for the music they make, and this second full-length release lives up to that description.
The album-opening “Storz’ Bar” unfolds like a meeting of those two most influential of B’s, the Beatles and Big Star. Its follow-up, “What’ve I Gotta Do”, is a dead-ringer for post-Mark Olson Jayhawks, a lovely, “bah-bah-bah”-enriched one at that.
But Alan Freed’s Radio also finds Lou Ford rolling out their most country/roots-leaning songs to date in “(Move Up To) The Mountains”, the brief but busy instrumental “Doodle Bug”, and, especially, an old Old 97’s-style murder shuffle titled “Mexico”. Of course, they still spend a lot of time inhabiting the midtempo middle ground between those two poles, as “Come On Sun” and “No Mystery” demonstrate. Factor in the rowdy rocker “Replacement” (a title that’s no coincidence) and the penultimate “Maybe I”, a song as lovely and pensive as a mid-autumn Sunday, and you’re looking at sophomore success.
The album’s bookends reveal the band’s grasp of radio history. The aforementioned “Storz’ Bar” is a nod — actually, more like a raspberry — in the direction of the inventor of Top 40, Todd Storz, while the album-capping “Alan Freed” honors the legendary, barrier-busting DJ.