RED PINE TIMBER CO. – Sorry For The Good Times (Gold Rush)

[Norman John Darwen]

Plenty of Americana here  – based in Perth, Scotland, this eight-piece has a pure country sound on an item like ‘Bar Stool’, with its aching vocal by Gavin Munro and beautiful harmonies by Katie Whittaker, and with David MacFarlane’s mandolin playing prominent in the backing. It follows on from the exuberant rocking country of ‘Cutting You Loose’, and leads into the bluesy ‘Look At The Moonlight’, with wailing blues harmonica and some tough electric guitar riffing. But there are other things going on too – there’s a very subtle hint of a traditional Scottish sound in one or two places (just something in the riffing on ‘If You Want To’, otherwise a fine country inflected rocker) , and the horn work adds a unique flavour to a couple of tracks, and a vintage rock and roll touch to others – and ‘For The Angels’ reminded me more than a little of Cockney Rebel. There is some fine pedal steel guitar playing from guest Stuart Nisbett – listen to the beautiful closing song, ‘Dry Your Eyes’, or lend an ear to the honky tonk-ish ‘Get Right With You’, before it becomes a jazz and gospel flavoured shouter, and maybe those last descriptions apply to the album overall – versatile, distinctive and very, very entertaining.
Norman Darwen

(www.redpinetimberco.com)