Led by Kurt Marschke's impressive vocals, the five-piece band swagger through a collection of songs full of gunslinger guitar moves and sweeping country choruses. But the Brothers are no slavish imitators. In other words, their references are classy. The song, I'm Not A Stealer, mysterious and brash, introduces the band's sound, a twangy take on rock 'n' roll's past, specifically Rolling Stones circa Exile on Main Street (as their website admits) with touches of the Jayhawks and classic-era Tom Petty. It's like a statement of intent - the first sounds from Detroit's Deadstring Brothers' début album is a drum pattern followed by a swash of abrasive guitar chords. Joe BreenĭEADSTRING BROTHERS Deadstring Brothers Times Beach Records **** Bittersweet, slightly distant, quietly intelligent, the touch of Rouse and his sensitive band is sure throughout. Small-town scenarios, growing-up, life and all its small triumphs and disappointments are the grist for his trawl through his memories. Rouse, who revealed his penchant for the era in his last album, the brilliantly realised 1972, has written or co-written 10 songs that on first hearing sound misleadingly lightweight, but which grow in stature with each hearing until you find yourself humming a line from It's the Nighttime or Winter in the Hamptons. The nearest Nashville gets to country music is the occasional steel guitar in the background or a lone mention in Carolina - this is really a pop record, albeit a very cool pop record in the retro soft-rock style of the early 1970s. The title of the fifth album from this excellent, understated US songwriter is the kind of quiet joke you would expect from Josh Rouse.
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