THE LONG RYDERS : PSYCHEDELIC COUNTRY SOUL

THE LONG RYDERS : PSYCHEDELIC COUNTRY SOUL

Greenville
Let It Fly
Molly Somebody
All Aboard
Gonna Make It Real
If You Want To See Me Cry
What The Eagle Sees
California State Line
The Sound
Walls
Bells Of August
Psychedelic Country Soul

Label : Cherry Red Records

Release Date : February 15, 2019

Length : 49:50

Review (Wikipedia) : Psychedelic country soul is een album van de Amerikaanse country en rock band The Long Ryders. Die band is opgericht in 1984 en heeft bestaan tot 1987. Daarna is de groep nog een paar keer bijeen geweest voor een reünieconcert en ze hebben enkele verzamelalbums uitgebracht. Nu hebben ze voor het eerst in 32 jaar weer een album met nieuwe nummers uitgebracht. Op dit album staat een mengeling van psychedelische muziek met country en rock met veel harmonieuze samenzang en stevig gitaarspel. Deze muziek is sterk beïnvloed door de countryrock uit de jaren zestig en zeventig van o.a. the Byrds, Gram Parsons en Flying Burrito Brothers. De nieuwe muziek die hierdoor ontstond en waarvan the Long Ryders als een van de voortrekkers werd beschouwd, werd Paisley Underground genoemd. Later is daaruit alternatieve country en americana ontstaan die onder meer bekend is geworden door Wilco, The Jayhawks en Whiskeytown. De muziek van The Long Ryders is soms nogal rauw, zoals in het openingsnummer Greenville en What the eagle sees. Maar de band speelt ook gevoelige ballads zoals If you want to see me cry en California stateline. Op een aantal nummers zingt het trio The Bangles mee. Alle nummers zijn geschreven door de leden van de band, behalve Walls, dat is geschreven door Tom Petty. De band is genoemd naar de gelijknamige western-film van Walter Hill (1980).

Review (AllMusic) : Good music is often the product of unexpected alliances and strange bedfellows, so it makes a certain perverse sense that in 2019 Paisley Underground heroes and alt-country progenitors the Long Ryders released their first studio album in 32 years, and in a roundabout way we have gangsta rap icon Dr. Dre to thank for it. In the '80s, Larry Chatman was part of the Long Ryders' road crew, and he's since gone on to become Dr. Dre's personal assistant, helping to oversee Dre's Los Angeles recording studio, Record One. Chatman was able to stake his old friends in the Long Ryders to some studio time at Record One, and the result is the band's comeback album, 2019's Psychedelic Country Soul. While the Long Ryders had staged periodic reunion tours since they called it quits in 1987 (most recently in 2016, following the release of the box set Final Wild Songs), heading out to play material from the back catalog and recording a fresh batch of songs are two very different things, and given the circumstances that prompted its creation, one would be forgiven for expecting this project to sound a little stiff or tossed off. Thankfully, those expectations would be dead wrong. Psychedelic Country Soul is every bit as satisfying as 1984's Native Sons and 1987's Two-Fisted Tales, and it's within throwing distance of their best album, 1985's State of Our Union. This is a somewhat more subdued album than what the Ryders delivered in their salad days, with fewer fist-pumping anthems in the manner of "Looking for Lewis and Clark" and more contemplative, midtempo numbers (though their tribute to the love of music and the music of love, "The Sound," comes close). But "What the Eagle Sees" and "Greenville" show that this band can still turn up the heat when they want, and even at its quietest, Psychedelic Country Soul sounds deeply committed and from the heart. They connect especially well on the country-flavored jangle pop of "Greenville," the moody and lovelorn folk-rock of "Molly Somebody," the fiddle-infused acoustic heartbreak of "If You Want to See Me Cry," and the litany of modern injustices in "Bells of August." All four members of the band - vocalist and guitarist Sid Griffin, guitarist and vocalist Stephen McCarthy, bassist Tom Stevens, and drummer Greg Sowders - contributed to the songwriting, and the sound and feel of the music is a joyous re-creation of what they've always done best, while the performances are crisp and energized, as taut and passionate as ever. And Ed Stasium's production is smooth but natural, flattering these musicians without intruding on the natural punch of their music. In 2019, the Long Ryders have an awful lot to say, and on Psychedelic Country Soul they're sharing their message with the heart and soul that made them great. It was real nice of Dr. Dre to give them a chance to put it all on tape.

Review (Blues Magazine) : Bij sommige reünies kan je grote vraagtekens zetten. Er zijn bands, die weer bijeenkomen, puur voor het geld (hallo Sex Pistols, hallo Spice Girls!), andere reünies zijn een eenmalige kans om het eens zo indrukwekkende geluid van een band weer eens mee te maken (hallo Led Zeppelin, hallo Cream!) en je hebt reünies, die gewoon meer dan logisch zijn. Zoals de reünie van The Long Ryders. Na dertig jaar zijn ze weer terug! En ze passen perfect in het huidige roots en Americana geluid. Toen de band in 1983 door zanger-gitarist Sid Griffin werd opgericht werd ze gelijk in de toen heersende Paisley Underground scene ingedeeld. Een scene waarin psychedelica en countryrock perfect samengingen en waar bands als The Dream Syndicate, The Bangles, Three O'Clock ook deel van uit maakten. The Long Ryders vielen op door hun gekartelde versie van het countryrock geluid van The Byrds of Gram Parsons. De band is dus weer terug en ze hebben het nog steeds! Sid Griffin (zang, gitaar), Stephen McCarthy (gitaar), Tom Stevens (bas) en Greg Sowders (drums) klinken alsof ze nooit zijn weg geweest. Nog even fris dus! Een goed bewijs is het openingsnummer Greenville. Met dat ouderwets vertrouwde sprankelende gitaarwerk, afgewisseld met rauw priemend gitaarwerk en die prima verzorgde zang! In het lui deinende countryrock nummer Let It Fly ligt de nadruk meer op het geluid van The Flying Burrito Brothers, ten tijde van Gram Parsons. In de achtergrondzang zijn Debbi en VIcki Peterson, van The Bangles, duidelijk hoorbaar en uiteraard ontbreken de fiddle en de mandoline ook niet. In Molly Somebody worden ook ineens de overeenkomsten met Tom Petty's geluid duidelijk. Tom Petty is ook weer aanwezig in Walls, dat een cover van een nummer van zijn hand is. En deze cover past perfect in het Long Ryders geluid. Geholpen door de Bangles dames is hier sprake van een warme en zeer respectvolle cover. Rauw rocken kunnen The Long Ryders ook nog steeds. Luister maar eens naar All Aboard, dat lekker hoekig rockt met Crazy Horse-achtige gitaarriffs. In What The Eagle Sees gooien de mannen er eens even flink de beuk in via een stomende rocker waar een behoorlijk garagerock geluid aan zit. Ik ben persoonlijk het meest gecharmeerd van de zwierende countryrock nummers als Gonna Make It Real, dat klinkt als een mix van Gram Parsons en Tom Petty. Ook de breekbare, intieme ballad If You Want To See Me Cry met zijn huilende fiddle en zwevende pedal steel is ronduit schitterend. In de semi akoestische ballad Bells Of August duiken onverwachts invloeden uit het geluid van The Band op. The Long Ryders sluiten het album briljant af met een funky soort Americana, Psychedelic Country Soul dus! The Long Ryders nestelen zich met hun comeback album direct weer aan de top van de Roots/Americana divisie, waar ze ook thuishoren.

Review (Louther Than War) : Rightly celebrated as the inventors of alt.country (as it used to be called before it became Americana), The Long Ryders left a brief but spectacular legacy for a band whose career initially lasted only four years and three studio albums. Their fourth, after a 32-year gap, owes its existence, oddly, to Dr Dre. The gangsta rap mogul's personal assistant Larry Chatman was part of The Long Ryders' road crew back in the Eighties, and toured with them regularly. In late 2017 he offered the band's de facto leader Sid Griffin time in Dre's state-of-the-art LA studio Record One. That's all it took to persuade the rest of the band to get back together. Eight days later they had this album. Psychedelic Country Soul, is a definitive example of a record doing exactly what it says on the tin although psychedelia was never the strongest component of a band initially associated with the so-called Paisley Underground of LA bands back in those early-Eighties. If anything, what distinguished the Long Ryders from contemporaries like The Dream Syndicate, The Bangles and Green On Red was that they gave the psych element a back seat and concentrated more on the driving garage-rock aspect of their influences. That said, the title of their comeback album - arriving a mere 32 years after the last - is a pretty good summary of what they do. Psychedelic Country Soul carries on pretty much exactly where they left off in 1987 after that historic 1-2-3 of Native Sons, State Of Our Union and Two-Fisted Tales, all recently re-released in lavish new editions by Cherry Red. It features the same line-up of duelling guitarists Sid Griffin and Stephen McCarthy, and the rhythm section of bassist Tom Stevens and drummer Greg Sowders, augmented by the organ of producer and "fifth Long Ryder" Ed Stasium. And as soon as you hear Greenville, the album's anthemic opener, it's like they never went away, their signature sound of interwoven guitars and harmony vocals a refreshing reminder of what they've always done best. "How's the revolution? And your war machine?" sings McCarthy, demonstrating that the band has lost none of its country-rock chops, channelling those familiar inspirations - the jangling 12-string Rickenbacker beloved of The Byrds along with Creedence, Gram Parsons and Buffalo Springfield - alongside lyrics with just enough social comment to stay remind you they're not just a pastiche of their influences. After four decades their overall mood is inevitably a little more laid-back than it once was, but they can still rock out with the best of their peers, as they do on the punchy, punky What The Eagle Sees, while a faithful cover of the late lamented Tom Petty's Walls gives the original a run for its money, complete with backing vocals from old friends The Bangles. Meanwhile, Kerenza Peacock of Griffin's post-Long Ryders band The Coal Porters adds a lonesome fiddle to his wistful acoustic ballad of lost love If You Want To Hear Me Cry and McCarthy's paean to home, California State Line. Remarkably, not only does Psychedelic Country Soul stand up to its predecessors, it has a more cohesive sound - perhaps due to the speed with which it was recorded - and most of the songs here rank alongside anything in their repertoire. There are dips - McCarthy's Gonna Make It Real is a little unconvincing in the vocal department and even more so in the lyrics (the dreaded "Heart like a wheel" cliche making a further unnecessary appearance in the annals of lyrical history, as well as a regrettable couplet of "I'm getting high / When you're passing by"). But it takes only one or two listens to be singing along to songs like Molly Somebody and, unlike so many front-loaded albums, it reaches another peak as it goes on, the Petty cover sandwiched by The Sound, a song that articulates exactly why these men in their sixties have made another record when they could be resting on their laurels, and Bells Of August, with its overtones of Dylan's I Shall Be Released. By the time the title track draws to a close, drenched in Dave Pearlman's pedal steel, it's evident that this is more than a return to form; it's a highlight of their career, putting them in a very small category of bands who have reunited and ended up matching, if not surpassing, their earlier records (Suede and Dinosaur Jr spring to mind. but few others). Their forthcoming UK gigs should be something special.