Red River Dialect - Awellupontheway (CD)

Quite pleased to see this arrive today, since I remember being quite impressed with the last thing I heard from Red River Dialect - a split with hazy fellow Falmouthians(?) Colour Sun. On this one the band hailed by none other than Ben ‘Six Organs’ Chasny as creators of “the greatest fist-in-the-air fisherman jams since the Waterboys” (and also count MC ‘Hiss Golden Messenger’ Taylor among their fans) are going it alone, jamming out swirling psychedelic folk-pop which is wild, loose, enjoyable and quite unique.

They’re rooted in full-voiced folk rock with a slight Americana feel and expressive Dirty Three-esque fiddle scraping, drifting into sun-drenched slide guitar jams with hazy summer tones and loose, lively delivery. The vocal delivery on ‘Lion Walks Among’ is reminding me of Nick Cave but these guys aren’t peddling relentless darkness. In fact they’re one of those bands where you can really tell that everybody’s having a really great time playing the record, and the compositions very cleverly meld traditional music and more modern psychedelic sounds without ever sounding forced or jarring.

In places I think it sounds a bit like Jethro Tull without the flute which sounds like a jibe but I actually really like Jethro Tull and don’t mean that in a bad way at all. It’s hard to find a compelling way tell you that one of the most entertaining psychedelic rock records of the year is by a sea shanty-based Cornwall folk-prog band but that’s what appears to have just happened.