Reviews

Riflebirds Of Portland
Album: Windmills On The Moon
Label: Regional
Tracks: 10
Website: https://www.riflebirdsofportland.com/

A mere 36 years since releasing their debut album as The Riflebirds and subsequently splitting up with bassist/songwriter Lee Oser becoming an author and professor of English literature, singer wife Kate a children's librarian and lead guitarist Kevin Kraft a Silicon Valley software tester, only drummer Kevin Jarvis remaining in the music biz, they've now reformed under the expanded name (so as not to be confused with the Australian rock band) with daughter Briana Oser, Kraft's daughter Grace and Kate's niece Branigan Lieuallen providing backups.

Recorded at Kraft's studio and produced by Marvin Etzioni who renews his songwriting partnership with Oser to provide the tunes, the sound is still rooted in late 60s West Coast folk rock opening with the steady walking, choppy rhythm and repeated refrain 'Sometime Somewhere', David Ralicke on horns, a number about love, chance and communication ("If my luck were to turn like a wheel/Where would I find you?...If a year were the length of my arm/Where would I reach you?...Would you talk to me on the street?/Would you talk to me when we meet?/Would you talk to me on the phone?/Would you talk to me all alone?).

A muted drum beat anchors the enigmatic spooky folk 'She's Not Here' ("Once upon a time/I looked in the mirror/I saw you were mine/Once upon a time/She's not here/Neither am I"), Oser's bass throbbing while the aspirated 'hah' recalls The Zombies' 'Time Of The Season', who of course had a hit with 'She's Not There'.

The Mermaids on back-ups, the title track is a more dreamily pastoral fingerpicked number about the feeling lost in the shift of the seasons ("The town of Manhattan is losing its leaves/Autumn was summer, now autumn grieves…Winter rode in on the five o'clock train…The snow piled up on Park Avenue") and has a vague touch of Paul Simon, while, Lee on piano and Ralicke on farty trombone, a snakier jazz-blues soft show shuffle rhythm carries the seductive 'My Mournful Bride' ("Don't you want me baby, when I'm alone with you?"), the husband his wife's second choice.

Etzioni on congas and a guitar solo from Kraft, a 70s funky gospel riff drives 'Reach Out (Touch The Divine') where Kate preaches "You can outlaw the Scriptures/Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus Christ/They say the price of belief is/More than the gold of a Nazi heist…there's no place under the sun/No place you can run/And it's dark in every cave/No one's going to save you/Have you heard the word of the devil/On your TV or in your head?/If you feel burnt out on evil/Try listening to the wind instead/You gotta reach out/Touch the divine" before the track fades away.

With a suitably icy pizzicato musical backdrop and Oser's vocals nudging 'Hissing Of Summer Lawns' territory, 'Penguin' is about endurance ("Penguin, how did you get here, across the ice…was your persistence, like my own?") while, Etzioni on electric keyboard and yet more horns, the bass turns funky again for the bluesy steady walking rhythm 'It Doesn't Matter Much To Me', a number Oser says is a 'so what' aimed at self-styled saintly corporates and overarching ambition" ("I knew you in high school/Number one in your class/You were the enthusiastic one/Who had his foot on the gas…I saw you work up the crowd/Like apes on a leash/You climbed up on a pillar of cloud/Or was it hashish?"). The catchy 'You Win' with its rat a ta tat drums and handclaps is the strongest throwback to those 6os West Coast pop days of acts like The Mamas and The Papas and The Sunshine Company, though a line "I couldn't shoot down your drones/So I sent in my clones" has a more contemporary ring to it.

There's more horns for the penultimate end of a relationship 'The Last Day Of Your Love' with its slow, moody and narcotic spiritual groove with a ruminative electric guitar bridge, the album ending with, a simple strummed acoustic and Oser on slide, the search for direction(and possibly mortality)-themed 'Where Does The River Lead'.

Quite how many of the original and ageing fanbase have clung to the memories over the decades awaiting a return is up for question while the band's now retro sound might struggle to find new ears, but on its own terms this is well worth a tilt.

Mike Davies

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