Steve Stacey and the Stump Splitters “Tall Tales, Fibs and Outright Lies” (Independent 2007)

Country music to have fun with

It would have been a bit of a let down, if not a betrayal, if Steve Stacey had been anything other than a stomping straight talking country band.

Although the band originates from Ottawa, Canada, the musical road it travels lies several thousand miles south and they make it sound like home. Stacey and his Stump Splitters deal in the currency of good-old fashioned sawdust-floored country music. Girls cars and whiskey loom large over the album.

And, as the unfeasibly long title suggests, this is not an album that takes itself too seriously, My Buck Owens Record for instance comes under Outright Lies. It is split into three ‘chapters’ Tall Tales, Fibs and, you guessed it, Outright Lies, an acknowledgement that some of the people and stories may not be entirely real and some may even have been exaggerated. Who would have thought it! It’s an album to be thoroughly and gloriously enjoyed not believed or analysed.

With Tall Tales, Stacey and his Stump Splitters have positioned themselves firmly on the rough and ready end of the street. Electronic wizardry seems to have been ditched in favour of a ‘real’ sound and it works, the naturalness of the recording breathes extra life into tracks like Truck Driving Blues, it means that it’s not a huge leap of faith to imagine Steve Stacey behind the wheel of that rig.

Much of the reality is derived from the fact that the album was recorded in Stacey’s basement and it sounds like it. The band are clearly enjoying it all and again it shows and that’s just two of many very good reasons for buying Tall Tales.

An album with songs like is Dirty Little Mind , Machine Gun Molly and North Bay Holding Cell was always going to be devoid of airs, graces and pretensions but Steve Stacey and co have made that ‘deficit’ a virtue by allowing the songs to grab hold.

In the final analysis, how can you not fall in love with an album that has song called Kentucky Bourbon which sounds suspiciously like its singer has taken the title as an invitation. The band from next door have brought it home in style.

Date review added:  Saturday, November 10, 2007
Reviewer:  Michael Mee
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