Way to make me feel old, guys: Goatsnake. See I always think of them as one of my ‘third (old) age of being a music fan’ discoveries and then I realise that their last full length was so long ago that most of you reading this were probably concentrating on skiving off maths lessons when ‘Flower Of Disease’ came out. Then I realise that I hadn’t hit 40 back then either. Fifteen years though. Fifteen! Ten years since their last EP ‘Trampled Under Hoof’, which is goddamn long enough to disappear, join the army, become an international hit man and return for my high school reunion. Or in this case an appearance at Temples.
Jeez.
Time passing. Time long enough to give me the blues. Which is convenient as Goatsnake, baggage train full of their truckload of mama’s muffins, is coffee and whiskey stinking blues. A big fat breathing rhythm section with Greg Rogers (drums) and Scott Renner (bass), with the great Greg Anderson’s stoned out riffs the size of elephants and a voice… oh that voice. Expressive, just the right amount of edge and at times carrying a tune like a sparrow perched delicately on an anvil; Pete Stahl is swampy, evangelical and mythic all rolled into this soulful voice of his.
If you’ve never heard Goatsnake, think the slow, strange stoner tent revivalist cousins of Clutch, just more primal, fresh from the swamp and smouldering with a weird inner dark. If you have heard Goatsnake, just think GOATSNAKE FUCKING YEAH!!
Oh, yeah this is a lazy eyed, glorious cracker box full of back-road magic. From the wailing female vocals, fiddle and plucked acoustic guitar on opener ‘Another River To Cross’ you know this is class. Before the classic doom riff, almost Wall Of Sleep in the melody, just kinda slumps down on your sorry head like a mudslide you know this is magic. Stahl’s distinctive, stunning vocals casually but easily make room for themselves in a laid back, sly, conversational tone and with some excellent backing vocals we are right back at home. They then ‘let go with some soul ‘ for the rich and heady ‘Elevated Man’. Riffs, beautiful rhythm section, perfectly held vocals, harmonica; what more do you actually want? This is utterly, totally, and effortlessly top drawer Sunday best music. A swampy swirl of blues and a thread of boogie held down by The Riff. It’s that trick of something that seems so simple but isn’t really, being written and performed with such easy handed mastery that you just clamber onto the back of their dusty, battered old pickup truck and let them take you away.
That is music at its goddamned finest. GodDAMN.
We get the heartfelt and urgent jitters of ‘Coffee & Whiskey’, the wonderful roll and boogie of the title track which reveals its true power in the quiet section where the control shown by both vocals and rhythm section is something lesser bluesmen can only dream of. We get the wailing wonder of ‘House Of The Moon’, the relentless digging ‘Graves’, and the affirming story of ‘Grandpa Jones ‘ which again showcases the immaculate, evangelical and full bloodied backing vocals by Dem Preacher’s Daughters – Wendy Moten, Gale Mayes and Andrea Merrit. They add so much soul here, so much joy.
They clear out with ‘A Killing Blues’, a powerful slow pounding journey on a sticky tar road. ‘Lightning, thunder, wash my soul to the ground… ‘ cries the unaccompanied Stahl in the drop-out section. And life is the same as it was before, because somehow they have never been away.
Is there a standout track? It feels like one of those potentially classic albums where everyone will have their own favourite but I simply must make special mention for ‘Jimi’s Gone’ which somehow combines this earthy, primal blues howl and Greg Anderson’s gorgeous thick riffs with a tiny, dedicate swirl of New York Dolls delivery. It is bittersweet, beautiful and soulful in a way lesser bands can only dream of.
There’s not a single duff or filler track here; the album is a perfect length of nine to the point songs not the bloated hour too many put out. This doesn’t feel like a ‘comeback’ or a ‘reformation’ either; this feels like a band who have tapped into such a natural flow that they have always been here and always will be. This is just pure, primal blues and it is glorious to behold. Step into their tent, people, step on in and see the light, see the goddamn beautiful light!
(9.5/10 Gizmo)
29/05/2015 at 8:38 am
Returning in style by Goatsnake; fantastic!