Rich Hopkins & Luminarios
Album: Tombstone
Label: Blue Rose
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.richhopkinsmusic.com

Big ringing guitars and muscular riffs are the order of the day in the latest from Arizonian alt-country desert rockers, so business as usual then. Mostly co-written by Hopkins and Lisa Novak, the songs cut to the heart of the big questions about values, virtues and morals, kicking off with the hard rocking 'enjoy what you have, let go, forgive' Don't Worry. As per the title, there's a Western thread running through some of the material, the title cut, another sturdy, bluesy rocker, is sung from the perspective of Ike Clanton, one of the OK Corral shootouts and a hard drinker who finally met his fate escaping from an alleged attempt at castle-rustling, while, preceded by Campfire Chat With Luke and Jimmy, a brief snatch of pre-battle chat to a lonesome harmonics, Private Shaw is a brooding nine minute account of the bloody history of the Indian Wars, spoken over a gathering guitar storm, which, in turns, leads into the sparser Mourning Song, featuring Novak on vocals, about honouring those who died in battle.

The album closes on Leona's Waltz, a tribute to Novak's mother, a piano player in a 50s dance band, sung by one of her former band mates, Arnold Parker, but it's the only gentle number in the collection, everything else taken with the guitars at full tilt and the amps cranked up as the band swagger through such numbers as the catchy, pop sensibility Everything, the garage rock nod to America's home in Home of the Brave, a steady bulldozering southern blues rock Free Man, a Pettyesque chiming Hang On and the seven-and-a-half minute, feedback drenched, guitar thunder freak out that is Top Of The World, dedicated to every rock band that never made it.

It's not soft and it's not subtle, but if you like your country rock served with a broken bottle and a fuck you tattoo, then you'll want to tie your horse to its hitching post.

Mike Davies