AA Bondy: American Hearts (Fat Possum/Shock)

 |   |  <1 min read

AA Bondy: How Will You Meet Your End?
AA Bondy: American Hearts (Fat Possum/Shock)

From what I have read, this dark folk album isn't what we should have expected from Mr Bondy out of Alabama. It seems he was previously the lead singer of an alt.rock band and drew favourable comparisons with Kurt Cobain.

Quite what made him drop the volume, pick up acoustic guitar and harmonica, craft literate and questioning songs, and aim for a place between Dylan (65 and 69), acoustic Neil Young and the shadowland of John Mellencamp and Ray La Montagne at their most melancholy we might never know.

But we should be very glad it has happened.

Bondy has a hoarse but melodic delivery, can fingerpick with the best, and it might help to know that he is married Clare Felice, from the same family as the excellent and similarly inclined Felice Brothers.

This is a kind of alt.country-folk with a smattering of blues, an oldtime America heart (Woody Guthrie) and yet in songs like the title track is firmly rooted in the disenchantment many Americans have felt in the past decade.

But he also spins a neat and memorable couplet ("love don't die, it just goes from girl to girl") sung with a kind of resigned sadness, not a baost.

I suspect his rowdy, boasting days are over.

This is a real keeper. 

 

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

The Soft Pack: The Soft Pack (Pod/Inertia)

The Soft Pack: The Soft Pack (Pod/Inertia)

And we thought Shihad had a controversial name post-9/11? This alt.pop four-piece based in Los Angeles – which has toured with the Breeders, Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party -- used to be... > Read more

RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Ray Charles: Crying Time (digital outlets)

RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Ray Charles: Crying Time (digital outlets)

There are any number of great Ray Charles albums (notably the two volumes of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music) and numerous compilations, but this seminal album from 1966 has just been... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN, a film by OLIVER HIRSCHBIEGEL (Madman DVD)

FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN, a film by OLIVER HIRSCHBIEGEL (Madman DVD)

Although this seems to have all the hallmarks of a stage play adapted for the screen, Five Minutes to Heaven (by the director of the gripping Hitler-bunker drama Downfalll) is based on a true story... > Read more

U2 IN PHOENIX: My unforgettable fire

U2 IN PHOENIX: My unforgettable fire

It was quite a few years ago now but I'll never forget it. U2 damn near killed me. Them, the Arizona sun, a famous architect and tequila actually. It was during their Pop-Mart tour -- the one... > Read more