REVIEW: Damon Bramblett, Damon Bramblett (Munich)
- David J. Klug
I saw Damon Bramblett perform at this year's SXSW, having gone out of my way to hear the singer/songwriter tagged as sounding like the Man in Black. For about a month prior to that show I'd inquired about Bramblett's music and always got the same response: he sounds like Johnny Cash. Hey, that's not bad company but it nevertheless made me wonder if most of the people with whom I spoke ever heard a lick of Bramblett's music. Yet even I took the bait and found myself telling others before the show that I was off to see this guy, Damon Bramblett: "sounds like Johnny Cash."
With or without the Cash comparison Bramblett's music has been labeled alternative country -- flag waving that is sure to make plenty of prospective listeners turn up their collective noses and run from the hills. Too bad, because his self-titled debut is alternative country only because Nashville has yet to embrace its kind (and probably never will). It's alternative country for lack of a better description, just like the "hillbilly" and "rockabilly" music of the 50s from Johnny Cash and Orville Couch to Carl Perkins and Warren Smith. Those artists and dozens more like them were equally important contributors to early rock 'n' roll as much as country and would today, just like Bramblett, arguably be branded as alternative country artists. Which all means that this record is intelligent and sassy and of the purest form of country music, flavored with honky tonk passion and performed rock solid.
Bramblett's an ace songwriter -- his characters come to life in story songs -- and real country music endears itself to him. He penned all eleven tracks and stand-outs include the opener "Tear Him Down," which bite's hard about a critic's darling, "Nobody Wants To Go To The Moon Anymore," about disgust for complacency and status-quo (and recorded by Sara Hickman on her Misfits album), "Heaven Bound," an exceptionally tuneful song (and recorded by Kelly Willis on What I Deserve), "Falling Apart," a bopper about the selfish sorrowness of love lost, and "Waiting For The Mail," the record's best, and most haunting, track. Pedal and lap steel, harmonica, and upright bass figure prominently throughout Bramblett's songs, as do his vocals that recall none other than Mr. Cash. Produced by Lloyd Maines (Robert Earl Keen, Wayne Hancock, Richard Buckner), who also plays on the record, the songcycle offers continuity not often found in recordings from the current slew of "alternative country" bands and couldn't be farther from the sounds of the Wilcos and Son Volts. Beyond the tags it's also a record, like the very best of what's ignored by Music Row, that will stand the test of time and be as enjoyable now as in years to come.
