6 String Drag – Self-Titled

In my ongoing efforts to call attention to what strikes me as the most vibrant alternative-country community in America at the moment, I made the mistake in last issue’s Jolene review of saying 6 String Drag would soon have a record out that would help spread word about the band outside their home base. I was soon enough made aware that, in fact, 6 String Drag already has a record out. (Such is the price of trying to document a regional scene from afar: Though the outsider’s view can often be refreshingly unbiased, it’s also inherently doomed to be less informed.)

In any case, this self-titled debut disc, which apparently has been out for about a year already, still seems worth going back and reviewing — partly because it hasn’t gotten the attention that Jolene and Whiskeytown (and, soon enough, the Backsliders) have received, but mostly because it’s too good to be overlooked. Leader Kenneth Roby deserves recognition as one of the finest tunesmiths in this fertile scene, cranking out slightly twisted countrified-rock tales ripe with both musical and lyrical hooks that keep calling you back for more. The instrumentation, grounded in guitar but touched with the twang of fiddle, mandolin, and lap steel (not to mention piano and organ), serves Roby’s songs admirably, stringing them along enticingly without overshadowing them.

There are problems here — most notably the sound quality, which is so treble-heavy you’d almost think there’s no bass on the album if the credits didn’t claim otherwise. And the record weakens as it goes along, stacked top-heavy with such memorable cuts as “She’s A Hurricane” and “Off With Your Head” but generally fading down the stretch. But by the time it’s gotten that far along, 6 String Drag has already staked its claim as one of the cream corns in the Carolina crop. And from this vantage point across the continent, it’s quite simple: The more, the merrier.