Sometimes you can be guilty of spending too much time looking for a record's hidden depth when the appeal is designed to be clear, simple and transparent, In the case of Gary Van Miert it is just to make a fun album that purely indulges a lifelong passion to savour and share the spirit of classic country music. If you're going to dive full length into a celebratory project then you might as well drop the day name and conjure up a tag that yells from the treetops what you want everybody to get. So here's born The Sensational Country Blues Wonders! complete with enhanced punctuation and an all encompassing title boring to the core of country music.
THE WORLD WILL BREAK YOUR HEART is not clamouring for awards, recognition or influential status, nor does it proclaim to save any genre. It is straightforward entertainment, free of pretence and wholly representative of a performer who has apparently gained a cult notoriety on the Jersey City music scene.
Apart from putting a smile on your face as you're taken on a wild ride across the plains of the American roots landscape, there is some seriously rhythmic fiddle, steel and double bass to supplement the joyous wit and good time feel. From the play on words that greets opener 'Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar' to a murder ballad for the modern times in 'My Baby Stabbed Me with a Steak Knife', the whole dance hall aura casts life's woes to one side for forty minutes. Of course there are country literary staples littered across the ten track titles and Van Miert is doing nothing more than paying homage to his love of Memphis blues, Texas swing and everything in-between as long as its wholesome, traditional and country to its deep roots.
The comparison that sprung to mind when listening to The Sensational Country Blues Wonders! was Deke Dickerson; a blast from the near past there. Hats off to Gary Van Miert for conjuring up his team of likely virtual accomplices for THE WORLD WILL BREAK YOUR HEART and cutting a disc that is just pure, honest and a wholehearted take on a genre that will never tire of being celebrated.
