When it comes to the new album by Dave Rawlings Machine, I can’t go beyond
“The Weekend”. Obviously, this album has six other songs that are all excellent,
well-written, moving, perfectly realised – but it’s hard to get past the
opener. Once in a while you hear a song so good you feel it’s not just you. It’s
everyone else. Obviously all the musicians involved knew they were recording
something special.
It’s an album to be
addicted to. Second side has a couple of obligatory fast-paced numbers that
must be great fun to play but not such transcendental joy to listen to (I love
them both – but then I’ve been a Welch-and-Rawlings admirer for a while now),
but even those get drowned in the amazing craft put into this work.
Also, I can’t decide
whether Nashville Obsolete is a
self-deprecating title or merely a clever one. But then who cares about such
details when you have a stone-cold Americana classic that almost rivals Gillian
Welch’s masterful Soul Journey?..
Besides, it has “The Weekend”.
