best albums of 2014: #8

 james dean kindle & the eastern oregon playboys – many splendored things (self-released)

for starters, before even playing the reocrd, the cover artwork captures the ideal the playboys are going for in making an old country record. the cover photo of a couple square dancing on a belt buckle on a satin background feels post-war americana. and the back cover emulates perfectly, the dawning age of home entertainment, right down to the small print describing the manufacturing process of the vinyl. the blue vinyl, however, is a deviation of form and the story of the mine disaster approaches ridiculousness. yet the story illustrates the band's dedication and is the right humor to present a caricature of human spirit in a time before the robotification of man. the sadness of the human demise is carried straight into the music as only country blues can offer.

if there was ever any doubt about the playboys ability to recreate a new, but genuine 1950s country album, that doubt was quickly blown off from note one. side one is a perfect record in every way. the production was earnest with well-seasoned professionals sean ogilvie and levi cecil on hand. that’s the main aspect in which the playboys have advanced from their 2012 self-titled album. many splendored things isn't better or worse, but a different project entirely that needed different ears and recording skills.

laura gibson’s appearance on the first song, the other way, is pure time travel since she is about the only person alive that could match kitty wells for substance. country radio (when that was real music) would have used i’ll be around as the promo single, for showing off the entire band first in the guitar and piano solos, but mostly peter walter’s sax as the added pepper. it was not needed on the album, but it does, for a moment, turn the otherwise drunk, love-sick balladeers into a swing band. and that up tempo spirit is needed to sell records and get bookings in ballrooms. the addition of the psychedelic country song in your mind allowed kindle to put his own stamp on the genre. it is perhaps my favorite song on the album. the repeated kaleidoscopic noodling at the end is a fair addition for a crooner gone overboard, but damn them for pressing that laugh, followed by what sounds like an elbow to a piano key in the last groove at the label. try waking up sweating at two in the morning with that still spinning. a love affair gone awry feels better. at least that possibility of the technical tomfoolery separates the record from its cd counterpart, which could not have been present sixty years ago.

side two starts off as promising as side one, but quickly becomes somewhat of a different record, though it still follows the old country album diversity, a little like tom t. hall records maybe. laura gibson is given a solo of her own on let’s pretend we’re strangers, which, followed by kindle’s sassy reply in the chorus, makes it about the heaviest hitting song on the album. but the song sets up a regrettable part of the story. considering the production, the seedier side of life in i only… (the song i can’t stomach enough to finish the title) and brain cells should be no surprise, but go beyond the subtle charm of an older age, even those that sang about the typical destruction. the mood is recaptured with the rendition of louis armstrong’s we have all the time in the world. cover songs are a tricky business and often ruin records, but the playboys do turn it into an appropriately sad county ballad. plus, it is a perfect choice of song to close with, leaving an aftertaste of a trashed and empty ballroom the morning after. it completes the record’s homage to a time nearly forgotten.