The Australian musical collective The Counterfeit don’t describe themselves as a band – they are a musical posse, metaphorically riding out to capture the atmosphere and excitement of some of the tunes that would go onto to reshape the way that we hear Westerns and would also be a significant influence on a slice of this music we call Americana. Their calling is the soundtrack of the Spaghetti Western, and as such their guiding light is Ennio Morricone. It’s no surprise then that their second album ‘14 Killer Bullets From The Spaghetti West (Vol 2)‘ should be released today, which would have been Morricone’s 95th birthday. Not every track on the new album is a Morricone tune, but songs like Bruno Nicolai’s ‘Ringo Came To Fight‘ show their own heavy influence.
Unlike their entirely instrumental Volume 1LP (which was released in September of 2022), The Counterfeit now have Freya Josephine Hollick riding in the posse for 5 tracks on theVol.2record, which is quite a point of difference to the original film score recordings that almost always favoured male, Italian baritone vocalists. And Joan Baez of course. Overall, though, their sound remains true to the originals in spirit – to the fore are chromatic harmonica, Fender Bass VI, twangy electric guitars and jangly acoustics, with Trumpet, violin and an array of pianos and organs adding an epic wall of sound.
The Counterfeit have some upcoming shows – unfortunately all in Australia – at the Theatre Royal, Castlemaine on November 25th and on December 2nd two shows (2pm matinee, 8pm evening) at the Brunswick Ballroom.
