These particular Americans are a former jug band from Los Angeles with an upright bass and a banjo fetish.
They’ve backed Nick Cave and Lucinda Williams, formed the house band for Jack White and T-Bone Burnett’s roots documentary American Epic and now re-tool rockabilly and blues for the 21st century.
They sound, well, American, in a rib-licking, barn-storming, hard-working, ain’t-gonna-tell-no-lie, I’ve been driving an awfully long time sort of way.
The Right Stuff is not a reworking of the New Kids on the Block classic but a Springsteen-esque escape cry about leaving home with a dream.
I’ll Be Yours is the slow one where you head to the bar; Harbor Lane is Dire Straits’ Walk of Life grafted on to Scott Walker’s Duchess and a vivid illustration of how wonderful musicians do not always make wonderful songwriters.
