Workhorses Of The Entertainment / Recreational Industry – Self-Titled

Like a skilled short-story writer, Ben Reynolds knows how to use opening lines to get your attention and set a scene. For instance, Reynolds, formerly half of the stomping Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, starts out the gorgeous Joan Of Arkansas with Floating across the flooded fields, imagining the johnboat is a gondola/Singing pidgin Venetian at the top of their lungs, his voice sounding sweet as it bounces off the aluminum. On As Much As You Do, a slice of marital combat, he opens with, You woke up tasting of liquor and cigarettes and sex/Congratulations, you went through with it. And most memorably, theres this from Dewayne, a song Vic Chesnutt-ish in both tone and delivery: Dewayne, you fuckin genius/Exposing your bare penis/To the United Methodist women. While the band might have a highfalutin name, their sound is low on the falutin scale. The music made by Reynolds and 6 String Drag alumni Rob Keller and William Tonks, laid-back and driven by acoustic instrumentation, is content to serve as the rustic binding that holds the stories together.