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Album Review

Rocky Votolato Makers
Eat Sleep Records

Article written by Ged M
Feb 12, 2006.

If a songwriter writes about what he knows, then Rocky Votolano is blessed with rich source material. Growing up in a Texas town of 600 people, with a father in a motorcycle gang at war with the Hell’s Angels (“I remember my dad being handcuffed and taken away because of the pistol he always carried in his belt...it took me a long time to realise that kind of shit wasn’t normal”), his third solo record is evocative with a strong sense of sadness: “this is the kind of comedy where no one’s laughing/ ‘cause it’s hard to” (‘Portland Is Leaving’).

Musically it’s him and his acoustic guitar, backed up by various musicians including his brother Cody from The Blood Brothers, and sounding like Ryan Adams, Iron and Wine and even Simon and Garfunkel at times. Though now living in Seattle, there’s plenty of Southern influence: ‘Tennessee Train Tracks’ has all the requisite signifiers: lightning bugs on the front porch, drinking, fighting, searching, travelling, all set to wailing pedal steel guitar. The album starts with the sweetly melodic ‘White Daisy Passing’ before entering a dark tunnel of darkness, from the escaping yourself tale of ‘Goldfields’ to the suicide song that is ‘Makers’: “heaven or heavenless we’re all headed for the same sweet darkness”. The first single ‘Portland is Leaving’ stands out for its lonesome lyrics - “sounds too simple: love is the only answer/ everything else is a train wreck” - and a defiant chorus.

Although the dark night of the soul mood doesn’t carry the whole album (thank God for programmable CD players!), Ryan Adams’ fans will be inspired by the honesty and intimacy of these folk-alt.country tunes.

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