Tuesday, March 27, 2007


Indigo Moss – Indigo Moss (Butterfly Recordings).

Indigo Moss has just finished as successful support for the recent The Good, The Bad and The Queen’s UK tour and this, their debut album, follows up that success. They have a myriad of influences and Start Over Again has a choral opening with banjos, harp, fiddles and guitar soon joining in. This is Appalachian meets middle England and is a good old sing-along -- great start. The follow up, Suicide Song, was never going to be a happy go lucky song but the female vocalists work well together and this black tune is firmly in the Americana mould. Dang Nabbit has blues and country influences with a venomous, acerbic lyric. They keep one foot firmly in Americana with Happy and have the knack of turning out an upbeat song with less than upbeat subject matter. By the time we reach Miss Those Eyes, the harmonica player is becoming more and more of an influence and he certainly stamps his authority all over this sparse offering. See See Rider is an often covered song and Indigo Moss has countrified it. I can’t say anything against it, as they turn themselves into a modern day jug band. Ok Without You is gentle Americana and Swimming takes you away from yourself. It’s very mesmerizing and is a surprise highlight. The Sweet Spirits o’ Cats a Fightin’ is unashamedly country influenced. Yee-ha, get them pants a swingin’. Indigo Moss invades my realm with a cover of Robert Johnson’s They’re Red Hot. This could have gone oh so bad and they add banjo, electric guitar and bass but it’s such a great song that you can’t really go wrong. They make it different yet also make it sound familiar and that’s a great way to come out of a cover. Red Shoes is off-beat, quirky and old fashioned but the counterpoint young voice sets it off so well. They finish with Nature Of This Town, a Western style foot-tapper and I’m sure that I can hear a washboard in there somewhere.

Indigo Moss could just well be one of the breakthrough bands this year.

http://www.indigomoss.com/

David Blue.

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