Empire Builders

Americana-UK.com (6 out of 10)
(This) Political record works best when it leaves the big issues behind. The opening ‘American Question’ co-written with Jim Roll is a tremendous stuttering opening, the lyrics question the US’s foreign policy role whilst the music - horse clop percussion and banjo stammering along trying to make up its mind with a subdued sawed fiddle and wah wah pedal steel and wasp in a jam jar guitar -perfectly complement the uncertainty about a land that can embrace all and police the world in the service of not a greater good, but of its own economic necessity. The question of being an American with no regard for the mainstream political views is again questioned in ‘Rebel Flag in Germany’ which expresses the surprise at seeing a symbol of slavery and oppression in Europe when it is bad enough at home, his reaction is ‘I say “I’m a Canadian”’, the music approaches the gnarled Southern Rock beloved of the redneck fraternity. Rednecks won’t be pleased by ‘Tuskegee Pride’ the story of black airmen in WWII; less controversial is ‘She Hung the Moon (Until It Died)’ a typical Ringenberg ballad perched halfway between bravado and sentiment, the music also veering from the tender to the almost bombastic. Another touching if less tender song is ‘Link Wray’ a tribute to the long-time guitar mangler complete with huge rocking guitars like outcroppings of rock played by the wind. The wind plays a part in ‘New-Fashioned Imperialist’ where the tuba and trombone add an air of farce to the lyric, too broad for satire it sounds like a German bier-keller song. How the whole thing is supposed to hang together thematically (it doesn’t), I’m not sure, press releases led us to believe this would be a great statement covering all types of empire builders, ‘Half the Man’ is a tribute to his father, his voice back to his Scorcher days, near to yodel, full of feeling, the empire here can only be the farm and family, the heart and the home, these empires hewn out of the everyday are the ones that fascinate him most. Again ‘Eddie Rode the Orphan Train’ is a touching story of an orphan making his way in the world, the plight of orphans that were passed almost into slavery is a point obliquely made. The closing ‘American Reprieve’ was recorded live with upright bass and percussion finding a soft jazz way around a poem that again revisits the place of America in the world, how interventionist policies can be both success (WWII) and failure (Vietnam) the answer to this dichotomy is one for which there are more questions than answers, he sensibly offers no solutions.

David Cowling