Reviews

Artist: Laughing Gravy
Album: Goat
Label: (available through) Folk Wit
Tracks: 12
Rating: ***
Contact:  www.laughinggravy.net

When I first put this on the cd player my first thought, after just a couple of bars was to dismiss it as novelty. An idea inspired by the name of the band and the simple game of spot the goat skull on both sides of the cover. Boy am I glad I persisted and really payed attention.
"Goat" evokes images of smokey cellars at night. People gathered around a table with groups of instruments and thoughts of life, death and all points in between.
It's got a touch of Americana about it, but delivered with a British idea of what that should be. It gives the album a slightly quirky sound, distinctive, remote and yet captivating. Musically it's very intrguing, you can't quite put your finger on it, where it's come from or where it's going it's just there and feels right for being so. You can pick the influences, blues, bluegrass, country, rock, even funk, but that doesn't allow you to pick the whole. For that alone the quartet deserve congratulation.
Some of the songs sort of tumble into each other, but that comes across as more of a production process, having the time and maybe the budget to capture a distinctive edge to all of the material. Once the songs have taken off lyrically they grab their own identities, though these are often dark, they are deeply entertaining, Laughing Gravy could do a fantastic album of murder ballads given the inclination.
All of the songs are contributed by Charlie 'Bones' Stewart, who along with Paul 'Dank' Bishop, Mr Beam and Trevor King 'Bo' also provide the music. He's got quite a talent. A lot of the songs are deceptively simple. It's the bits beneath the water that you've got to watch for. I've reinterpreted the meaning of a number of the songs and been happy with the outcome on each occasion before another thought is triggered off.
I really like this album, but if push cam to shove, I'd find it difficult to say why. It has an undefineable something that makes it what it is.
I do know one thing for certain though, if this band gets to playing close by, I'm there like a shot!