Lo-fi country blues

It’s been a productive year for Holly Golightly and her bandmate Laywer Dave, reworking material from earlier in Golightly’s career on Long Distance, and now this autumn follow-up of new material. In addition to nine originals, the Brokeoffs cover Cecil Null’s country hit for the Davis Sisters, “I Forgot More,” Wayne Rainey’s “We Need a Lot More Jesus” and Mac Davis’ 1980 novelty, “Hard to be Humble.” The former is sung sweetly, befitting its mid-50s origin, the latter more broadly and fitting with the goodtime boozy mood of “One for the Road.” Rainey’s 1960 revival tune is reworked from its original sentiment of more Jesus and less rock ‘n’ roll to it’s Bible Belt-challenging inverse. The productions are stripped down, but not entirely lo-fi. The droning low notes of “They Say” provide a languorous bottom end for Lawyer Dave’s slide work, and the combination of guitar reverb and second-line rhythm on “Tank” suggests Bo Diddley inNew Orleans. The Brokeoffs continue to work the field of country blues as if they’re riding a vintage tractor fresh out of the garage. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

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