Belting it out from the great white north, Yesterday’s Ring (Myspace) is giving their Canadian friends a clinic in good ol’ American Cow-Punk. Their recent release, Diamonds In the Ditch (Suburban Home), is a solid collection of heartbreak, life on the road, abuse and love gone wrong. I wont suggest that there is anything terribly new being put on display here, but that doesn’t matter when it’s done so well.
Two geographically entitled tracks, “Moving Out (To Florida)” and “Moving Back (To Montreal) are the types of songs I think about when I hear others talk about “Cow-Punk”. The rest of the album employs various combinations of roots, rock and punk. For example, there is some Dixie-land punk (“Quebec City Blues”) and then there is a healthy dose of old-fashioned Rock with a serious twang to it (“Sad Songs”). “Scrabble Strip Club” is a heartbreaking duet that Dolly and Kenny only performed in my drunken dreams.
The strained and raspy vocals of Fred Jacques and Hugo Mudie aren’t exactly wide-ranging. What they lack in sheer strength and range, they make up for admirably in their ability to adapt to each song. While the album is a rock collection through and through, there are tracks, like “Scrabble Strip Club” and “What Happens On the Road Stays in the Van” that require a sensitivity that many rockers aren’t able to pull-off near as effectively as is done here. When it comes to this type of Country/Punk hybrid, it’s not likely that anyone is going to revolutionize it and turn the sound on its sonic-ear anytime soon. There are bands that pull it off and bands that don’t quite cut it. With Diamonds In the Ditch, Yesterday’s Ring pulls it off easily.
LISTEN: Full Album Stream - Yesterday’s Ring, Diamonds In the Ditch
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