Joe Grushecky & The Houserockers – Down The Road Apiece Live
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Posted On March 1, 2000
It’s a simple formula that too many bands fail to learn: Consolidate your strengths — in veteran Iron City barnburner Grushecky’s case, estimable songwriting skills, a gritty foghorn of a voice and a killer band — then hit the stage on your home turf and record a no-bullshit, visceral live album.
Recorded at Pittsburgh venues Nick’s Fat City and Rosebud, Down The Road Apiece Live kicks off with “No Strings Attached”, a churning power-pop thumper from Grushecky’s Springsteen-produced ’95 release American Babylon. Next comes a brace of sucker-punches: a desperate, Clash-inspired reading of Vince Taylor’s “Brand New Cadillac”; a brooding, 12-string fueled number “Dark And Bloody Ground”; and a seamless blues-rock riffer, “Dance With Me”, featuring Grushecky’s ace harp blowing.
From there, the Houserockers rousingly blow through anthem after anthem, the kind of roots-Americana classicism that John Mellencamp nowadays can only dream of. Springsteen turns up on a handful of the Fat City numbers (already widely bootlegged). They swing, swagger and crunch like Keith Richards and Ron Wood on the old Iron City Houserockers number “Pumping Iron”, then blow their tonsils out together in a searing vocal duet on the title tune. Intriguingly, a new studio track, a memorable Latino rocker called “Hola Mi Amigo”, appears at the end for an unexpectedly welcome coda.
