Blind Texas Marlin's album, Feel Free, starts off as the kind of music that you might hear while you're slamming back brews in a dive bar near the Gulf before heading out to sea. A Southern interpretation of bluegrass folk-rock meets sea shanty, it's perhaps the accordion that makes Blind Texas Marlin's sound unique. From the opening twang of the banjo in "Bad Time" to the stormy refrain "Four Chord Sweetheart," and the elaborate whistling outro in "Help yr Self?" there is a thematically haunting, yet toe-tapping sound that carries through the first six tracks. "Butter Soap," slows things down, and again showcases the accordion and banjo as vocalist John Curry croons disdainfully about rising waters and heading home. The album takes a turn into something completely different in the rougher, rhythmic, "Sexy Ida," before moving back in the bluegrass direction with "Robust Test Flights." The first half of album seems more cohesive and focused than the last, with "Four Chord Sweetheart" and "Bad Time" highlights. Utilizing a strong start and drawing on raw rollicking melodies, Blind Texas Marlin's Feel Free is pluckin', strumming, and using the spoons like no one else in the folk genre.
Where Y'at New Orleans
Varied
