The Asa Hawks - Roadkiller EP

The lead track on this EP from Leeds alt-country types Asa Hawks is really reminding me of the Pretenders. They have that same kind of melodic straightforwardness to them. After that they strip things back down to more of a country feel, with added banjo (and I think I hear a bit of understated slide guitar) for that smooth southern vibe. It feels like I'm back in that smoky bar in Fort Worth with its longhorn skull mounted over the stage and its one-legged owner. As I move on to track three the pace gets even slower (and there's now definitely a slide guitar) and at this point I think this EP might be secretly trying to lull me to sleep with its gradually lowering tempos. There's a lovely little guitar duet at the end of this song with some precision picking and tasty cascading guitar lines that sounds really great. The collection is then rounded off with a relatively pointless instrumental karaoke version of the opener which merely serves to illustrate that taking away the vocals doesn't really add a great deal to this particular song. The actual songs here are strong, though, so don't let that put you off!