For those who dont hang around the bait
shop, The Drunken Fisherman are Matt Weirick of
Archie Blowers and the Swingin Angels, Cliff
Gaither of Cornfed Johnson and Kevin Hambrick of
Blueberry Hurricane. These blokes recorded
Down By The River in a living room back in
the summer of 1999. Why it took six years for
this disc to float upstream to whatzup
Headquarters Ill never know. Perhaps they were
busy cutting bait.
Inspired by the ending of a marriage, these
musical veterans joined together to record 16
tracks of misery, bliss, freedom and beer.
Utilizing a recently vacated living room and a
Tascam 4-track, the trio gave vent to their
emotions, capturing the live sound of emotional
catharsis. To break up these raw, loose episodes,
a collection of more polished songs by Hambrick
are sprinkled throughout. Not only do these
prevent the album from being one long live jam,
but Hambricks penchant for sounding like either
John Lennon or George Harrison gives Down By
The River a slight White Album feel,
mixing in crafted songs with improvisational
freewheeling tomfoolery.
The title track is a foot-stomping roots rocker
with lots of twangy guitars. In Ballad of the
Fisherman, bluesy vocals accompany the live jam,
leading to the raw rock of I Aint Got No
Woman, where the vocalist screams I aint got
no woman over and over atop a loosely arranged
bed of guitars. Fishers of Men is a riotous,
rambling song, as are the live Got Me On The
Shake and Dusty Road, both of which take
ragged, slide guitars and add trashy garage drums
to augment the singer emoting his pain through
musical wails and groans. My favorite was Oh
Come On, a story about trying to buy a hot dog –
I think.
The polished songs sound like rough demos from
Hambricks studio work: acoustic guitars, catchy
pop melodies, intriguing vocal harmonies, gentle
mellow-rock pacing and encouraging, hopeful
lyrics. You can see how these two styles contrast
and strengthen each other, with the bright pop
lightening the darker live songs and the live
songs keeping the pop from being too saccharine.
Its a strange combination and it works.
You can join Weirick on his journey down the
turgid river of relationship hell by visiting
www.youregoingup.com to reel in a copy of Down
By The River. What the album lacks in sound
quality is more than made up for by heartfelt
authenticity.