National Ransom

Why EC is a mainstay of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass – he’s a fan of honest country and western. He ranges here across a variety of styles from bluesy to country crooners to gypsy jazz to quiet acoustic moments, most of them pretty convincing, exhibits some humor, often bitter, and plays vintage guitars (noted by model and year in the liner notes). Literary story songs predominate. Call it the dark counterpart of Asylum Street Spankers. Lest you think this country thing is some lark (having heard only of EC’s punk or classical or what-have-you styles, note that EC’s fourth album back in the early 1980s was also a country album, Almost Blue, that, at the time, was treated as a one-off lark of some sort from the angry young man punk.

1. Noisy rocker decrying the riot of the (monetary) elites since 1929
2. Acoustic jazz story song of an unfortunate man
3. Slow ballad
4. Cute, with whistling outro
5. Catchy pop song with just a touch of twang
6. Story of CA showbiz disillusionment and resistance
7. Great torch song with EC in crooner mode; lyrical image – You hung the moon/ From a gallows in the sky/Choked out the light
8. Sad, slow, alluding to Central American revolutionary assassinations
9. Uptempo country rock
10. Midtempo more country than rock
11. Slow, stately
12. Barroom rock with 60s Vox organ embellishment
13. Honky-tonk cry-in-your-beer tune
14. Humorous upbeat blues rocker about the joys of Jezebel
15. Haunting ballad, with accordion, mandolin, and lap steel
16. Western swing