"Big People Shoes," the debut album of local four-piece The Blue Mollies, has successfully earned a triple genre unto itself: country-blues-rock.
It's a weighty and impressive venture to do justice to America's oldest sounds, but this is a pretty impressive debut.
A little bit Wilco, Gin Blossoms, and neighborhood bar band, The Blue Mollies have managed to cultivate a rootsy, bluesy guitar sound equal parts splendid heartland heartache and energetic contemplation. "Someday I know I'll have to give you
up, so let's sit back for awhile and enjoy what we've got," sings lead vocalist Emily Olson on the disc's highlight opener, "Nicotine." Olson's warm, soulful sound is perhaps the band's biggest compliment, bringing a tone reminiscent of Martina McBride, Aimee Mann, and Susan Tedeschi.
"Big People Shoes" covers all the bases of young blue-collar blues, pondering love, love lost, love gone wrong, and, naturally, love at a drive-in. "You'd think by now I'd know everyone in this town/Don't know 'em all; all I know is they'll be around," Olson sings in "Different Sleeve." "But every town plays the same record, just a different speed." Yeah, this is music to nurse that tear in your beer to, and maybe dance a little too once you've knocked back a few.
www.thebluemollies.com |
