Unpretentious acoustic country songs played for the fun of it.
Starting with an acapella version of Ralph Stanley’s Gloryland leads you to expect something out of the ordinary. So, when Diamond’s Icaro turns out to be paint-by-number bluegrass, it’s all a bit of a disappointment. The album is sold as a set of “Susto favourites” reworked in a bluegrass style, but listening back to the original of Diamond’s Icaro, which was a gentle indie/americana tune, you have to wonder why they felt the need to revisit it and beat it to fit the bluegrass template.
Things improve markedly with E-350, which may be the first song about a septic tank to be featured in AUK. Jackson Grimm’s Mandolin is the standout here. The song sounds like it was actually written as a bluegrass, rather than having the genre forced on it. Justin Osborne and Morgan Wade share the lead vocal on Hard Drugs, which is where the string-band feel really takes hold. Nat Copeland’s fiddle takes the lead, with banjo and bass filling out the rhythm with a mellow groove which suits the confessional nature of the lyrics. Band leader Justin Osborne says of collaborating with Country singer Wade: “She picked Hard Drugs as the song to feature on, and I’m so glad she did, because her vocals brought that song to life for me in a whole new way, and I’m excited to finally be sharing this version with the world!”
The mid-tempo Hands In The Dirt again feels rather an awkward fit as a bluegrass tune. Overall, they seem more confident when just playing the songs as acoustic country rather than worrying too much about setting an intention to make a bluegrass song. County Line is the best example of where the acoustic approach works well. The instrumental Work Away is the piece which seems best able to fit the bluegrass/old-time brief. The duelling fiddles of Copeland and folk singer Madeline Dierauf give this an authentic folk feel. Black River Gospel is another simple acoustic country song played and sung with verve.
Don’t Feel Right is another duet, this time with band member Helena Rose. Her slightly fragile voice is an interesting foil for Osborne’s darker tone. A breakup song with some nicely affecting words, written from the point of view of a songwriter expressing themselves through their lyrics.
Osborne says of the process of creating this record, “It was so much fun to make over the last year. The band really came together on the road after the release of Volume 1, and this new record naturally came together too, along the way. Between shows we were writing songs in the van, and squeezing in studio time whenever we could. It was a really fun and natural process, and I’m really proud of the finished product.” That’s good because it feels very much like a personal project, and from that point of view it works. There will be better bluegrass and acoustic country records released this year, but Susto Stringband (Volume 2) is worth a listen if you’re interested in how they have taken songs mostly written for a very different style and mostly made them an enjoyable listen.
