Michigan Rattlers Make a Stand

Listeners frequently categorize a band based on the singer’s range, tone, or accent. For many listeners, the vocal is the primary, even exclusive focus. This bias, however, can blind one to the eclecticism and potential universality of a project. Often there are melodic movements, lyrical content, or instrumental elements that align pieces with any number of genres or subgenres, even if a readily classifiable vocal is featured. Such is the case with numerous acts, including Michigan Rattlers. A listener who pays attention to the band’s songwriting stylistics and instrumental subtleties will gather that, like Dawes, Wilco, or Whiskeytown, this ensemble has absorbed a range of indie or “alt” influences. Graham Young’s committedly old-timey voice, however, conjuring comparisons to Brent Cobb, Sturgill Simpson, and Todd Snider, will, for most listeners, keep the band’s gestalt grounded in traditional parameters.

Evergreen’s opening song, “Just Good Night,” is a quintessential drive-with-the-windows-down-on-a-hot-summer-night tune, successful in large part for the mid-verse transitions from a major to a minor chord – resulting in a highly hummable melodic shift. “Last Week” is grounded in ostensibly traditional vocal and instrumental tones but replete with understated rhythms and melodic fluctuations that flirt with hip indie-ness a la Uncle Tupelo or Okkervil River. “Drinking Song” is an intriguing take on the well-used trope, lyrics by Young and Adam Reed capturing that existential fluctuation between one being glad that a relationship is over and wishing that the ex would return and give things another go. The Dwight Yoakam-ish “Late Night Cigarette Talks” opens with a notable honky-tonk piano part by Christian Wilder. Young nails some of his more evocative lyrics with lines such as “Left my blood on the roses” and “Just my guitar and my records.”

That part of the Americana genre that draws deeply from ’60s and ’70s Southern rock and its country/outlaw forebears is well populated these days. Numerous artists display praiseworthy skills, attempting to personalize longstanding lyrical motifs and vivify clichés by contextualizing them in heartfelt and credible portraiture and narratives. Such is the case with “I Remember.” Young’s melody, however, is distinctive and warrants attention, and his oblique lyrics – such as “I remember coffee in my cup / My hands were shaking but I wasn’t waking up” – add an element of mystery, an opportunity for a listener to enjoy interpretive license: a perennial theme navigated in such a way that what isn’t lyricized is as intriguing as what is (to employ my own cliché). Evergreen closes with “The Heat,” again featuring a compelling piano part by Wilder. Young’s guitar solo is an instrumental highlight (he might’ve considered displaying his instrumental aptitude a bit more). The piece is a vivid vignette, concluding with the depiction of a marriage proposal, the listener left uncertain whether the response will be “yes” or “no.”

Perhaps these songs blend together a bit, a sameness of tempo undermining the salient qualities of each track. Still, this is a band with solid songwriting chops and instrumental skills. Young is a charismatic frontperson, even if his vocals could benefit from more tonal variation. Michigan Rattlers strike a workable balance between derivation and originality, melodic hooks coupled with accessible lyrical content, familiar progressions undergirding subtly unique flourishes. Evergreen shows this three-piece from Los Angeles via Petoskey, Michigan, making a stand, making their way.