Living proof that the country/alt-country dividing line is a moving boundary is the first official big-label release from this Nashville band (their 2002 debut was an indie effort that wound up with major backing). Pinmonkey has been getting considerable mainstream country acceptance, even while daring to take twang turns on songs from Cyndi Lauper (“I Drove All Night”) and Sugar Ray (“Fly”) to their musical mix, and featuring a sweet-singing, hard-driving drummer (Rick Schell) who has worked with Steve Earle, Buddy Miller and Allison Moorer.
Michael Reynolds’ effective vocal on the Memphis-tinged “Every Time It Rains” is not far in the style of its attack from Buddy Miller’s or Lonesome Bob’s. And their single “Barbed Wire And Roses” makes a welcome addition to the hard-kicking song catalogue.
At their best, this band’s affecting, electric guitar and dobro-led work can strike you as what might have happened if the original Flying Burrito Brothers (or some California country-rock competitors) had stuck together long enough to develop more seasoned musical chops, and had a more reliable (and edgy) rhythm section.
Pinmonkey (named for Homer Simpson’s dream job at a bowling alley) poses a provocative question: Can a country-rock band with relatively traditional notions of vocal prettiness and harmony be accepted as a country-rock band now — neither automatically dismissed by post-punkers nor semi-ghettoized as “modern bluegrass”? That tag would be only minimally applicable here, though you will hear some of it on the tune “Augusta”, which even gets some Ricky Skaggs mandolin backup; elsewhere, Dolly Parton joins in on their version of her balled “Falling Out Of Love Without Me”.
If there’s pop here, it’s a sort of pop that alt-country can relate to. And if Pinmonkey’s music really represents a serious possible direction for country radio, that’s got to be positive news.