Free Dirt Records have been responsible for some exceedingly
good album releases in recent times and this continues with the brand new
record from JP Harris. When you are in the company of artists such as Western
Centuries, Dori Freeman, Rachel Baiman and Vivian Leva, the bar is elevated high;
a challenge richly accomplished throughout the short shrift tones of SOMETIMES
DOGS BARK AT NOTHING.
Regardless of the back-story, which may or may not be relevant
to the listener, you gain the impression from the off that JP Harris is a
straight-up no bullshitting honky tonker. The songs are brash, cutting and
splashed with an element of rawness. Just glancing at the titles before
spinning a single track, the vocabulary is awash with negative connotations
such as nothing, quit, blues, dead and alone. However, this is country music
and wallowing in some sort of depressive misery is a badge of honour, and we purists
would not have it any other way. Of course the motto ‘sad songs = happy person’
increasingly gains traction to put things into some perspective.
The opening bars of this ten track-thirty one minute offering
immediately throw up one association – Sturgill Simpson in his pre-Meta Modern
days. Throw in a couple of detectable Cash and Kristofferson moments and the
shaping of a modern day country music outlaw takes shape. There is a touch of
self-homage in the opening track titled ‘JP’s
Florida Blues’, an instant fast paced driving rocking number that knocks
the album into shape with no delay. It takes a few more tracks before this
frenetic activity surfaces again. The track to do this is ‘Hard Road’, and the initial associated thoughts confirm. In
addition, to leave you on familiar ground, JP frantically strums through the
blistering ‘Jimmy’s Dead and Gone’,
hailing the never to be forgotten train rhythm that has railroaded through country
music since the days of Jimmie Rodgers and probably before that.
For those of you who
prefer your honky tonk of a slower persuasion, dripping with one voice drowning
their acoustic guitar or piano with heaps of self-penned melancholy, then JP
Harris is right on the mark. The ubiquitous curse of the alcohol habit gets the
full treatment in this style courtesy of ‘When
I Quit Drinking’ and ‘I Only Drink
Alone’. Cliché or not, you get what you are dealt in these waters.
The title track anchors the album at no. 5 in the running
order and ‘Sometimes Dogs Bark at Nothing’
sees our protagonist get metaphorical in his song writing. An approach that
is compelling for any song-writing junkies out there. Earlier in the album ‘Lady in the Spotlight’ opens with a
tidy guitar riff before emerging into a song that draws the Kris Kristofferson
comparison. At this stage, any attempts to anoint a crowning track vanish as
this album deserves its entity platform and you cannot moan that half an hour
of excellence is taking up too much of your time.
Of the remaining tracks, ‘Runaway’
see JP joined by Kristina Murray on harmony vocals, an artist who has been
attracting serious praise for her recently released record. ‘Long Ways Back’ has a late night blues
feel to it and neatly fits into the moment when the record slides into some
heartfelt melody. ‘Miss Jeanne-Marie’
gets the full character treatment and JP uses piano to ramp up the story-
telling mode. Expect to hook in securely here, but as it is the penultimate
track, you will already be on-board.
JP Harris makes country music as was meant to be. Oh and there
is plenty of essential pedal steel. SOMETIMES DOGS BARK AT NOTHING knows what it
is about and powerfully presents a slice of music that retains a gilded status.
www.ilovehonkytonk.com