Carrying the torch for the cocaine country sound that’s equal parts high and lonesome to drunk and cumbersome are Portland, Oregon’s The Lonesome Billies. The vein of country music written and performed by punk rock cats is road well-travelled but It’s Good To Be Lonesome houses true grit and a real album collectivity to it. Not just a bunch of songs slapped together with an ironic album title pinned atop like some cowpunk jolly roger. It flows from dark honky tonk number to booze soaked white v-neck tee’s and tattooed hands holding up hungover heads with not enough hydration left to even muster a tear – the soundtrack to On the Road meets Easy Rider, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas meets Urban Cowboy. Clayton McHune and Jeff Gaither started The Billies as a duo…
320 kbps | 102 MB UL | HF | MC ** FLAC
…project, as things picked up steam and the creative writing juices flowed the duo took on brothers in arms, and real-life brothers Mike and Glen Scheidt on bass and drums, respectively.
The dozen track offering of It’s Good To Be Lonesome is yet another snapshot of 70s cosmic country brought out in due with punk rock sensibility and a story to tell. Jangly, rough-hewn, and misshaped, a slow favorite that will find more time in your rotation than gathering dust with the rest of your collection. As good a debut record as a band could hope for.
Harnessing all the energy on this release from the producer chair was Brandon Eggleston (Mountain Goats, Modest Mouse) 2/3 of which was done at Cloud City Studios in our great Pacific Northwest and released on band owned, Stay Lonesome Records. The record was released on September 1st so get on it. From those sessions, The Billies have graced me with an all but forgotten B-side, “William Davis” which soothes the cantankerous tale of a travelling salesman who has a problem with wives dying until he himself vanishes. Ladies and gentlemen…The Lonesome Billies:
01. Oh My Friend (1:28)
02. God Damn It Bill (3:11)
03. The Bottom of the Bottle Is Almost Dry (4:05)
04. The Day I Lost My Life (3:36)
05. Lawman (3:24)
06. Better to Forget (4:01)
07. Ode to the Open Road (4:33)
08. Stay Lonesome (3:28)
09. Die Lonesome (3:20)
10. Y’all Never Came out West (2:30)
11. Followed Right Behind Her (3:45)
12. 1922 (2:56)