The Crooked Brothers
Album: Thank You I'm Sorry
Label: The Instrument Village
Tracks: 9
Website: http://www.crookedbrothers.com

Hailing from the wide open expanses of Winnipeg, The Crooked Brothers are another in the seemingly endless stream of talented Canadian artists intent on making their mark in the UK with their own myriad brand of folk / blues / americana. And in truth it is a genre that is bursting at the seams with songwriting of the very highest calibre (witness fellow countryman Dennis Ellsworth for irrefutable proof of that!), so inevitably there will always be comparisons cited, some favourable, others not so.

Matt Foster, Jesse Matas and Baker are certainly nothing if not eclectic (or even scattergun) in their approach to their music, and 'Thank You I'm Sorry' is due testament to that. When they claim the album to have "both a rustic and rural feel as well as a punchy urban feel", as incongruous as that may sound, they're in all probability correct. Here's an album that will take you through the full gamut of emotions and deliver you safely out the other side none the wiser as to what you've just experienced - and that's no bad thing!

Recorded and captured over various sessions late in 2013, there is overall a slightly disjointed feel about the songs working as a cohesive body of work in terms of album composition, which would mirror it's inception. And the inclusion of (self-written) standard blues fare in the form of 'Pass By You' and 'Mean Mean Baby', and the rambling stream of consciousness outpouring of 'Organs On Demand' (nothing will better Steve Earle's 'Tennessee Kid' from the 'Terraplane' album when it comes to that!) do nothing to dispel that notion and to these ears sit uneasily in their place.

I think the reason they don't just feel right within the context of this particular album is the fact that the band have included 5 songs of genuine quality. 'Blackbird In The Snow', 'Kennedy', 'Sittin True' and 'North Of The Border', take on a very real laid back, almost lethargic quality (think Deep Dark Woods with their eyes half closed!), whilst 'Lightning In My Chest' really does break the mould with it's freaked out zombie beat colliding head on with Matt Foster's guttural incantations and hell-spawn slide.

But it's on the more introspective and indolent songs that this band excel, with their tales of sorrow, new beginnings and ultimately happiness. "Blackbird In The Snow" is musical comfort food. Spaced out pedal steel and a beautiful rolling rhythm allied to Foster's trademark gravelly deep voice (think Robert Fisher, Willard Grant Conspiracy), transport the listener to another time and place, and 'North Of The Border' keeps you firmly entrenched there, in the hold of whimsical acoustic guitar and a story that leads from first love to new love, offering eventual hope, with that kind of 'Inside Llewyn Davis' vibe permeating throughout.

'Thank You I'm Sorry' is ultimately high on promise, and well worth seeking out for those core songs that for me make the album worthwhile. I'll look forward to the follow-up with particular interest in the hope that the quality displayed on those handful of tracks permeates throughout a whole album.

Ken Brown
http://www.squarerootspromotions.co.uk