“All I wanna do is stomp and holler.”
And, apparently, shove out loud guitar licks, beat the drums ‘til they’re blue, and let your fingers and thumbs dance across the keyboard like the main stage at the county fair. The lyric (from the song “Stomp and Holler”) pretty much sums up Hard Working Americans’ philosophy in making their self-titled debut. Nobody’s going to mistake it as a formula for high art, but it does make for 40 minutes of regret-free listening.
The recording sessions for this album were the first time the band’s members all played together, and each of these dudes earns his daily dollar making important contributions to more established acts – bassist Dave Schools plays with Widespread Panic, singer Todd Snider has carved out a vibrant – if underappreciated – solo career, guitarist Neal Casal works with Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, and drummer Duane Trucks is the younger brother of Allman Bros slide player Derek – so we can forgive ‘em for not taking the time to write any originals for “Hard Working Americans.” What you’ve got here is a collection of solid, lesser-known covers from the alt-country/rock/Americana songbook. No ifs, ands or buts about it.
Start at the start. “Blackland Farmer,” originally recorded by Frankie Miller back in 1959, Snider’s narrator revels in his salt-of-the-earth lot in life, declaring his loam-tilling role the direct product of divine providence as sinful slide guitar slithers underneath his swampy growl. At the halfway mark, arpeggiated organ runs give way to a cool tribal kick-drum shuffle and ghostly slide outro.
“Stomp and Holler,” a Hayes Carll cover, is a pure-fun blend of mighty Skynyrd riffing and honky-tonk piano. The big message here: Take a few minutes off from searching for the big message. It’ll be there when you get back.
Not everything on the album’s just pedal-to-the-metal Mason-Dixon boogie, though.
The raspy, stumbling cover of Randy Newman’s “Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)” is another highlight. There’s an endearing in-auspiciousness to the band’s delivery, a singalong spontaneity in the same vein as Country Joe and the Fish’s socially aware work of the late ‘60s.
Tommy Womack cover “I Don’t Have a Gun” may be the coolest of the bunch, with its rumbling rhythm section and quiet-menace guitar pacing a slow-burn trek through the swampy groove, and mid-tempo folk-rocker “Down to the Well” manages to squeeze in two beautiful slide guitar solos.
Alt-country often gets a bad rap for being a whole bunch of the same sound over and over again. “Hard Working Americans” probably isn’t gonna do much to change your mind if you happen to fall in the critics’ camp. But what they do – stereotypical (or quintessential) as it may be – they do really well. The dexterous touch for freewheeling, twang-supported informality they display on this set all too often descends into dive bar mush in the hands of less focused and/or talented musicians. There’s not a whole lot of folks making good, earthy stuff like this anymore.
