REVIEW: The SunKings, Adios (San Jacinto)
- Chris Hill
Abhor the mass marketing of Hootie and the Blowfish all you want, a pleasurable honesty permeates their music. The same magic is captured in the SunKings' Adios. This is ideal bar band music, with tequila-laced guitar, powerful vocals, and smooth drumming, something to pull the Friday drinking crowd up to the stage in awed appreciation. If you listen close, the smoke-filled bar room atmosphere springs to life.
Robert Pounds' raspy voice draws immediate attention as "Hey Hey" kicks off the eleven songs on Adios. Rough at the edges, his voice elongates notes or cuts them off with a bluesy yelp. Backed by Greg Galbraith and Dave Gwinn on guitars and Trey Wheeler on drums, the SunKings form a tight, weathered unit, with songs of simple subjects: life and love, to which we we can all relate. "Brand new life with a brand new face/but the same old song in another place ... Now it's coming around again/Spread the truth that you like to bend" from "Believe" is a nice example of taking familiar themes and infusing them with heart and soul.
The structures and singing on Adios urge comparisons to Hootie, the Black Crowes, and Big Head Todd and the Monsters. All are musicians who take pleasure in classic songwriting: guitar solos, sharp fills, and clever hooks crashing against emotion-laden lyrics. Yet each has their individual flairs which comprise a unique identity.
Adios is produced by the band and San Jacinto label- mate Rich Hopkins with few frills. Hopkins also steps in with a guitar lead on "Believe", a sound immediately recognizable to fans of Rich's music, either with the Sand Rubies or his other band, Rich Hopkins & Luminarios.
Hopkins and the band are a good match. They focus on what they do best - belting out Southwestern music with a passion. The only hiccup is a "hidden" track following the last track, "Never Sent": Pounds, singing unaccompanied what sounds like a vocal track they decided not to include on the final product, and rightfully so. A jarring note is not the way to close up such a comfortable album. However, if that's the door charge, it's a small one for such gems as "Turnaround" (with Thomasina Jones adding wonderful backing vocals), "Rain's Gonna Fall", and "Find a Reason".
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