Korby Lenker - Bellingham

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 12 / 4 / 2004

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'Bellingham' is hard to describe without using a dictionary worth of expletives. By the time track two has finished you can’t but help be impressed. By the time track three ends you’ll be convinced it’s a work of genius. When you finally reach track five you may find yourself compelled to pick up your phone and tell someone how good it is. Bellingham' is an album in the traditional vein for bluegrass tinged country, with songs about girls and loss and God. What sets it apart is the exceptional musicianship, the fact that it sounds totally modern, and the quality of every single song here. The lyrics may take in old subjects but they do so with a distinctly modern twist and while Lenker’s emotions aren’t as on display as some people’s the bitterness and despair on ‘Full Moon To Rise’ and ‘Papercuts’ are up there with the most angst ridden singer/songwriters around. There is some truly virtuoso guitar picking on display as well. Lenker certainly shouldn’t have a problem winning banjo duels with any angry rednecks he might meet. Background vocals come from Michael Grigoni and the ever-reliable Jolie Holland. It is hard to pick the stand out tracks here due to the consistant quality. Anyone who has ever appreciated an acoustic guitar based song should definitely try to hear at least some of the tracks on it. The hyping of new singer/songwriters often far exceeds their talents but in this case Lenker – who apparently spent his childhood staring at the jump ramp from which Evel Knievel failed to leap the Snake River canyon – has created an incredible album. Whether you chose to call it alt-bluegrass, alt-country, acoustic folk or anything else is up to you but when the worst you can say about an album is that the text on the sleeve is so small and blurry it’s unreadable you’ve got a pretty special record.

Track Listing:-

1 Full Moon to Rise
2 Papercuts
3 Traded My Diamond
4 Shed a Little Light
5 Live Love Lose
6 Some Hallelujah
7 Old Shanandore
8 Punkin Brown
9 Angels Rejoiced Last Night
10 Right This Time
11 Never's Even Longer

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