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Album Review

Danny and Dusty
Cast Iron Soul Blue Rose

Article written by Ged M - May 7, 2007

Twenty years ago, Dan Stuart and Steve Wynn took time off from the bands they led (Green On Red and The Dream Syndicate respectively) and recorded �The Lost Weekend� in an appropriately beer-fuelled 36 hours. They were the Paisley Underground�s Waylon and Willie, alt.country outlaws who were more like pioneers, at a time when country music was seen as pretty reactionary. Two decades later, during which time they�ve survived drink, drugs and broken limbs, they�ve joined up again over a slightly longer time period for the follow up album �Cast Iron Soul�, with inspirations ranging from Dylan through Lou Reed and Johnny Cash. It�s less radical now that everyone�s making alt.country records but still sounds pretty good. The exception is the opening track �The Good Old Days�, where the vaudeville flim-flammery sounds like the sort of thing that they�d mug through on the Muppet Show. The career retrospective is done much better on the Cash-sounding �That�s What Bought Me Here� that closes the album. In between there are echoes of the past in the doleful �Warren Oates� while �New York City Lullaby� acknowledges their history: �I still like the taste of whiskey/ I still like getting high�. Best of all is �Hold Your Mud�, which blows in from god-knows-where with heavy percussion and tortured guitars, while the lyrics translate as: �bite your tongue�.

A record you make at 40 is going to sound a whole lot different to one made at 20; and the allowances made for youth don�t apply to the more mature recordings. But with one exception, the two Ds have made a pretty good fist of it, something that still has the umbilical cord to their younger, rebellious selves attached.

Links:
http://www.bluerose-records.com