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Written
by Daniel Boyer, posted by blog admin
Peripheral
Vision is a rustic slab of roots-driven Americana; the debut from Alpha Mule,
an economical rockin’ country duo. The
band is made up of Joe Forkan on vocals/guitar and Chris Stoner on
banjo/guitar. A host of guest musicians
contribute to this strong set of 10 originals with 5 bonus tracks that include
tunes that didn’t fit with the main arc of the album and duo versions of a few
of the tracks before additional instrumentation was added. This pair has a strong ear for intricate
vocal melodies and the diamond sharp lead strings and earthy rhythmic pushes
hold everything together with a rock-solid, lockstep groove that never lets
up.
This
is the kind of stuff that my grandpa and even my dad called country and thusly
it’s what I think of when I hear the word “country” tossed around as well. You’re hard pressed to find music this good
in the genre on any of the FM radio stations (and even some of the online
ones), so this release is a real treat for fans of the authentic Nashville
twang. The bar is a lofty one indeed,
the standard to meet laid down on kick-off anthem, “Corpus Christi.” Bolstered by a raw, pure interpretation of
the genre but accessible in Forkan’s hearty melodic vocals, this track sets off
a dust storm of racing banjos, fluid acoustic guitar riffs, deeply anchored
support from upright bassist Joey Burns and folky vocal harmonies. Despite the song being a tough act for the
twosome to follow, they hit shivering highs on every successive track which
proves that they are no one trick pony.
“On the Moon” calls to mind Frank Black’s work on the folk-country
masterpiece, Fast Man Raider Man. Light taps of percussion intertwine numerous
well-plotted acoustic guitar melodies, touches of pedal steel and Stoner’s
creative banjo pickin’. Some catchy
whistled melodies softly switch up the vibes again before the song returns to
the same soulful mid-tempo mode it began with.
You
couldn’t get more real deal country than the Hank/Patsy creeper that is the
album’s title track if you built a time machine yourself and travelled back to
the genre’s way back roots. It’s a slick
little number that trades revved up bluegrass speeds for a comely slow burn
with uplifting dual acoustic melodies, snappy grooves on the banjo, root note
centered bass, Hammond organ buried deeply in the background and a
show-stopping vocal delivery from Joe that will instantly get caught in your
ears. It’s followed by the moody crawl
of “The Distance” that takes the brisk evening grooves of “Corpus Christi,”
slow them down considerably and inlays a few trumpet accoutrements into its
melancholy second half for a very complete piece of work. They completely transition their sound to the
expressive, speeding bullet rockabilly/bluegrass split of album highlight
“Pavlov” and its white lightning guitar/banjo shakedowns. “Mule in the Mine”, keeping with a similar
song-to-song ethic, offers up more of the same but trades some of the bluegrass
feel for fast-paced folk meditations.
The
remainder of the album is held together firmly by down-tempo softness in the
form of several ballads, “Step Outside,” “The Ballad of Huell Howser” and
closer “Empire.” A late album standout
arrives in “Music of Our Hearts” mix of country and folk
with excellent banjo jammin’ leading the way alongside organ, keyboards and
trumpet. This final quartet of tunes is
truly a testament to Peripheral Vision’s
many different genre exploits and the sheer musical variety on hand. Anyone with a hankering for folk, country,
bluegrass and other Americana sounds of the distant past would do well to grab
the latest by Alpha Mule.
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