The Renovators, Blues Country

Blues Country is the sixth release by The Renovators. Brothers Ted and Al Hemberger, on percussion and bass, respectively, comprise the rhythm section. Bob Mayo takes care of guitar and keyboards. Filling out the line-up is Bob Rasero who contributes dobro in addition to guitar. The vocal duties are shared amongst the members, save Ted. Hailing from Bronxville, NY, they play a raw combination of blues and country that would sound right at home in a tavern. The emphasis here is country.

The album kicks off with a flourish of drums that gives way to the title track. At first I was reminded of Wilco's "I Must Be High" but, as the song wore on, this impression faded. Lacking the quirkiness of Jeff Tweedy's songwriting, the song is bland country-inflected rock in the vein of Tragically Hip. "Drinkin' You Off My Mind" follows and is a very good song. In fact, it's the best on the album. It is loose and fun as it as it crawls along. The vocals reminded me of Levon Helm and the song has the feel of The Band - the usual rock instrumentation augmented by accordion, piano, and acoustic guitar.

The rest of the album, excepting one song, is comprised of bland, insipid ballads and uptempo numbers that merely mimic the atrocious music emanating from Nashville that passes for country music these days. There's lots of twang and the drums are upfront in the mix. I kept thinking that I was listening to Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, or one of the other countless purveyors of turbo-tonk. To be sure, these guys are good musicians. They're playing is tight and there is some good arranging to be had, such as the organ on "No Better Place To Be (River Song)." Unfortunately, there are few good melodies to be had and most of the album sounds like it was molded from the cookie-cutter templates of modern country. To compound the problem, there are two versions of "Dancing With Lorraine." The first takes an uninspired hook and makes it into a light pop song. The second replaces the jangly guitar with a ballsier sound a la Pete Townshend circa 1968. But, other than this, there's really little difference between the two. For all intents and purposes, the melody and arrangement remain the same.

In addition to "Drinkin' You Off My Mind," I liked "The Deepest Blue" a bit. It's an acoustic song and the music reminded me of Townes Van Zandt. Much to my chagrin, the vocals sounded like Rick Springfield at elocution lessons. Whereas Townes would imbue his voice with an aching beauty, the singer here sounds as if he was struggling to sing every syllable of every word - there's so little passion to his vocal performance.

And this is the problem with the album as a whole. Nothing comes across as being heartfelt. Instead, almost every song sounds like it was done by the numbers. Go buy some Dwight Yoakam or Steve Earle instead.

(This was originally published at The Green Man Review back in 2003-08.)