Quickdrawl – Two Dollar Buffet
Quickdrawl singers Joe Rideout and John Troutman can’t help it that they sound a lot like Neil Young, so you might as well sit back and enjoy it. The likeness is strong regardless of which one sings Troutman’s road songs. These arise from the same vein tapped by Son Volt — pretty and brooding, with the singers cruising their upper registers. The strongest is “Lydleburg”, a tale of discovering, and playing, a stack of old vinyl country records on the floor of a gas station left stranded by the interstate.
The band’s music draws more from bluegrass and folk traditions than rock and country, a fact underscored by their Luddite-like use of a single microphone, both live and on record. They shine on more demanding uptempo tunes such as “I Threw It All Away”, with its quick time changes and stops, and a charming cover of Pee Wee King’s tongue-twisting word race, “You Tried To Ruin My Name”. The latter is the only song allotted to the Betty Boop vocal delivery of the band’s fiddler, Miss Darlene; it’s a pity they didn’t record her hilarious version of the Bottle Rockets’ “Thousand Dollar Car”, a standout of the band’s live sets.
Two Dollar Buffet is the debut album of this Austin four-piece, which includes Geoff Union on upright bass. Rideout and Troutman trade off mandolin and guitar as well as songwriting. If there’s a weakness, it’s in the latter, which is occasionally wince-worthy, but no more often than it’s elegant.