Former Hot Water Music frontman Chuck Ragan has been nothing if not prolific since he started his solo career a few years ago. He’s released a live album, Los Feliz, a ton of 7” records, a collaboration with Austin Lucas called Bristle Ridge, and two solo studio albums, including his latest, Gold Country which is out now on Side One Dummy. Gold Country again finds the former punk singer venturing down the road as a neo-traditional folk troubadour of sorts. His vocals are still rough-edged, his music still adorned with fiddles, slide guitar, and other fairly traditional instrumentation, and the music is still filled with as much passion as it was back in Hot Water Music’s heyday, but Gold Country strikes me as a bit different than his debut album, Feast And Famine. This album seems much shorter and more quickly paced (overall) than Feast And Famine despite the albums being of about equal length. Maybe that means the songs are better and more engaging, but I don’t know for sure. It might just be because songs like “For Goodness Sake,” “Done And Done, “The Trench,” “10 West,” and “Good Enough For Rock And Roll” are played at a bit more of a rock tempo with steady acoustic guitar rhythms carrying the pace. And although the songs on Gold Country are still rooted in traditional folk and (at times) almost bluegrassish music, they don’t seem to be rooted as deeply as those on Feast And Famine. All in all, however, this is one of the year’s best albums, no question.
MP3:
Chuck Ragan - For Goodness Sake
Chuck Ragan - The Trench
