I’ve got such a big stack of great music to listen to and review here that I think I’m going to need to take a couple of weeks off!  One of the great cds I’ve been trying to get to is the new cd Navasota by Tampa’s Will Quinlan and his new band The Diviners.  This band was formed with bits and pieces of his previous two bands, Pagan Saints and Murder Creek.  The title of the disc is a reference to his beloved late mother’s East Texas hometown.

Americana is a loosely defined term and probably means different things to different people.  To me this disc is about as pure Americana as it gets.  It is a great collection of catchy tunes with Byrds style jangly guitars as well as his co-producer Steve Connelly’s work on guitar, mandolin, dobro and pedal steel. Add drums, bass and harmonica as well as Quinlan’s lead vocals and you’ve got great Americana.  Often harmony vocals leave me wishing the band had just gone with one vocalist.  The voices just don’t complement each other and add to the song.  Such is certainly NOT the case with this disc.  Rebekah Pulley adds some of the nicest harmony vocals I’ve heard  in some time.

Many of the tunes are haunting homages to his mother, such as Plastic Rosary (Winter 1970) , the title track Navasota, and St. Theresa (his mothers name).  Take yourself to Navasota and get some pure Americana!

No related posts.