Bloodkin - They Told Us We Would Rise Again

  by Andrew Carver

published: 24 / 9 / 2009

---

Review

Bloodkin are the shadow of popular southern rockers the Drive-By Truckers – like the Truckers, they’ve toiled a long time – 24 years and seven albums so far – but unlike them they haven’t garnered international acclaim. They sport a tumbleweed tangle of guitars, and a twisted take on the southern rock gestated by bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd ... except these good ol’ boys ain’t feelin’ so good. Despite sounding a bit down in the dumps on their last album, ‘Last Night Out’, Bloodkin have decided to take another kick at the can – and dang if they haven’t gotten within grabbing distance of that brass ring. Part of this is due to a boost from their brother band, as Trucker-in-chief Patterson Hood touts the combo in the liner notes. As befits an album about coming back from the dead (or at least next door to it), ‘Baby, They Told Us We Would Rise Again’ starts way down in the hellish mantra of drug addiction ‘The Viper’ (further cementing the Drive by Truckers comparisons, Bloodkin mainman Daniel Hutchins’ lead vocal on ‘The Viper” even sounds like Drive-By Truckers’ Mike Cooley – and, well, that’s Mike playing banjo in the background). Things pick up from there, at least a little, with ‘Easter Eggs’, both a philosophical discussion of temporal physics and a testament to eternal love. Funky Muscle Shoals guitar lurks under ‘Ghost Runner’, and Hutchens’ skills as a lyricist shine as a boy remembering childhood daydreams of baseball victory. Lead guitarist Eric Carter also writes (or co-writes) some of the band’s songs, and chimes in with ‘My Name is Alice’, a down-and-out refugee from a Willy DeVille album. Elsewhere there’s the bucolic ‘Rhododendron’ and the ebullient ‘Heavy With Child’, a kicking laundry list – only slightly tongue-in-cheek – of things that Hutchens is delighted about. Together Hutchens and Carter have also written a song about their youthful pact to remain a team – which may explain why they stuck together, and ‘Little Margaritas’, a song about a drink which may explain why they almost didn’t. The entire album is also garnished with tasty keyboard work and fine production courtesy of longtime (and former Sugar man) David Barbe. Fans of Willy DeVille, Dexateens, Bottle Rockets, Blue Mountain and of course Drive-By Truckers should get a lot of mileage out of Bloodkin.

Track Listing:-

1 The Viper
2 Easter Eggs
3 Ghost Runner
4 Rhododendron
5 My Name Is Alice
6 Heavy With Child
7 A Place To Crash
8 Little Margarita
9 Wait Forever
10 Summer In Georgia