Joint Chiefs – Day In, Day Out
Release Date: Out Now
If you are missing live music
and, in particular, festivals right now then I would thoroughly recommend
wrapping your ears around this album by Westcountry based outfit Joint Chiefs. The
band’s take on the Country genre will immediately transport you to warm, sunny days
spent sipping cider in large tents and I think we could all do with a bit of
that escapism. The album kicks off with original tune ‘Isn’t It A Pity’ which
has a real Johnny and June vibe about the duetting vocals of Rick Worthy and Emily
Smith as they set the tone for this collection. This is followed up with their version
of the Dolly Parton classic ‘Waltz Me to Heaven’ with some sombre violin
weaving in and out of the three-four rhythm with the effortlessness of a country
girl dancing on a balmy summer’s evening.
‘Leaving for Venus’ is another Worthy
penned song which performs the unusual act of combining Country music with space
travel but it works and the slapped bass notes combine perfectly with the chug
of the acoustic guitar. Robert Johnson’s ‘Come On in My Kitchen’ is given a gloriously
effective a cappella treatment that stops the clocks before ‘Deep Water’ introduces
us to the music of Fred Rose with a playful lap steel melody flirting with the
guitar and violin. The album’s title track, ‘Day In, Day Out’, is a reflective
and somewhat mournful track which gives Smith the chance to really show off her
sumptuous country twang as well as her more subtle vocal talents.
On ‘Woman be Wise’, the band get their
country and western chops around the Wallace and Beach song with consummate ease
(and more of that gorgeous lap steel) while ‘Same Mistakes’ picks up the pace
as lead guitarist Phil Rossiter’s songwriting skills are given an airing. Townes
Van Zandt’s ‘If I Needed You’ has had many a cover version performed in its
honour but I think you’d be hard pushed to find one crafted with as much tenderness
and care as this one. The album finishes up on the anthemic ‘There’s a Guy Works
Down the Chip Shop’ with a delightful country burr given by Smith to the Kirsty
Macoll lyrics. Joint Chiefs are the kind of band that expertly knit together
the new with the old and you can’t even see the join because their musicianship
and love for the music is out of this world.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/thejointchiefsmusic/
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