X frontman goes clubbing with the
Sadies
X always mixed in a little country with
its rockabilly punk, but Country Club, a new album with Toronto
barnstormers the Sadies, is the first time John Doe devoted himself
so completely to the genre, covering songs by Roger Miller, Kris
Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard—and even X. He’s
certainly comfortable with the material, and his worn-leather voice
conveys an unexpected tenderness that adds spirited desperation to
opener “Stop the World and Let Me Off,” gritty regret to “‘Til
I Get It Right,” and aching vulnerability to “Help Me Make It
Through the Night.” His only dud is Willie Nelson’s “Night
Life,” whose arrangement is so forcefully dramatic that he gets a
little lost in the mix. On the whole, though, the Sadies know just
when to step forward or back, creating a general bootgazer ambience
and re-creating the steely Bakersfield licks of Hag’s “Are the
Good Times Really Over for Good.” They speed up Cash’s “I Still
Miss Someone” and fit it to a Sun Records stomp, but they only
really cut loose on instrumentals like “The Sudbury Nickel” and
“Pink Mountain Rag,” which shows how country-club refined the
album is.
Listen to John Doe & The Sadies on MySpace.