Kristian Montgomery & The Winterkill Band punched out this Lower County Outlaw album in recent months. Montgomery & The Winterkill Band, as usual, rock right out with the aggression of a knife wielding street gang. As with their last three albums KMTWB rip the soulfulness out of country and muscle it into a rock and roll attitude.
Opening track “Submit To My Transmission” finds the band staring out with some trippy lead guitar picking and a profoundly sad, forlorn lead vocal. Its low key, down tempo approach does not mask the build up in Montgomery’s simmering attitude. Before long, he’s belting with soulful sustains and a lead guitar eruption spikes, burning more brightly as it hits ever higher notes. A mellow vocal sweep moves around the guitar spark to create a contrast between soul and pain. Nice touch.
“Around And Around” features a mischievous lead guitar line spiraling around Montgomery’s lofty vocal cruise. This singer keeps his wide smooth voice in the midst of intimidating guitar action. That he can remain as vital as the cutting guitar line shows his strength as a vocalist as well an arranger. His tuneful rhythm section keep a pulpy, juicy groove beneath the upper register rumble.
“The Long Gone Blues” burns right into the listener’s awareness with a smoldering lead guitar. Its smoky phrase moves aside to let Montgomery emote vocally over a groove that’s party shuffle, part rocking. Montgomery puts his three cents in, displaying his world weary view and startling tale with a sturdy assertion. Giving more credibility to this number is an earthy organ swirl. It gives another heaping scoop of soul while the vocal sustains with masculine authority and the lead guitar screams with finality, an ending that does justice.
“The 4th of July” eventually erupts into another bonfire of blistering electric guitar and soaring, sweeping lead vocals. Its high flying act remind of how things, like the flying trapeze, can go very wrong if one part of the act doesn’t coincide with another. Like a fireworks display, it begins with one large impression at a time. This starts out with a slow swagger, Montgomery singing his metaphor with wide gentlemanly aplomb, walking it out over a jittery electric guitar line and a subtle groove. Soon, a fiery slab of electric guitar starts wailing before its wails turn to screams and we feel we’re all heading to a grand finale, a finale we may or may not like. It’s amazing how well this outfit builds tensions and moods.
Pushy guitars, bossy bass guitar, and a plucky drummer push “I Don’t Know What’s Real Anymore” straight into existence. Montgomery belts out his lyrical frustration with diffidence as electric guitar chord progressions pound the message home. Aside from the blunt, hammerhead shark approach to rock and roll, there are subtle shifts in the slapping guitar chords, growling phrase, and a two fisted rhythm section. It’s an aggressive song but it has plenty of moving parts to keep it interesting.
“Somebody’s Baby Mama” benefits from a jumpy groove, sudden stop and start punctuation in the guitar, and a rush of drum fills. Its hard driving groove gives the electric guitar a rocky trail to ride with plenty of bumpy action and a throw caution to the wind tempo. Let’s see if they can all play this one in sync when they’re in concert.
Gritty bits of guitar lead us into “Gypsy Girl,” a down tempo singer-songwriter affair with an edge. Montgomery makes the most of his wide handsome vocal sweep, sending it out like a lasso over the main action from the guitars. When he belts out his lyrics, Montgomery’s heart and soul can be felt in his palpable expression.
“Easy To Forget You When I’m Gone” makes for a restful, easy going number amid all of the tension laden Montgomery pieces on this album. This slow burner finds Montgomery at his most soulful, his voice having lots of space among down tempo, unobtrusive groove and guitar phrasing. It reminds of “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd in its wide, expressive, and graceful motions.
Montgomery & The Winterkill Band are back to their old tricks in “The Girl With The Gage’s In Her Ear.” This is one of those KMTWB numbers that features them playing so many moving parts that you, again, have to wonder if they can match it when they play live. The authoritative groove hits hard as Montgomery sprawls his forceful lyrics and chorus through the landscape and the guitars jump around and hit home with hearty smacks.
A blistering lyrical attack on a local music scene short changer, “Annie, Pay Your Band” becomes a universal theme about people who take advantage when they don’t have to pay up front. Ahem. This one never pay at all. Montgomery, when he sustains the lyric “Annie, pay your bbbbbbaaaaaannnndddddd,” he sings with an undeniable anger. The song, though focusing on an unscrupulous person, has a “Maxwell Silver Hammer” type humor in its repetition. Montgomery has been around a long time and he knows the type that’s been kicked out of the crossroads, and he seems to have come across a real devil’s spawn.
A strong 1970s flavor, “A Little Lower” draws in the listener with a nostalgic wave for that decade’s songwriting. The chorus could remind of anything from Hall & Oates to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Eric Clapton to The Chi-Lites. It’s catchy as hell and feels reassuringly familiar as it remains wholly new and original. Its tastefully brittle guitar line is another draw, a serious tenderness that politely walks us right up to that million dollar chorus.
Closing track “Lost In Memphis” showcases Montgomery belting out with a bluesy fierceness. Supporting his pipes are a lattice work of aggressive groove that can knock down doors, mounds of jumpy guitar, and a considerate pace. Montgomery’s vocal heft and his battle hardened band make the listener feel the muscle in all of the moving parts here.
Montgomery and his Winterkill Band maintain on this Lower Count Outlaw album their own standards of excellence that we’ve all been seeing on his previous three albums, all released within the last few years. Lower County Outlaw, produced by Andrew Koss at The Studios At Strawberry Fields, increases somewhat the already established creativity that this outfit brings into the recording studio. They try some different kinds of dissonance, contrasts, and subtle guitar playing styles with good results. Their 12 tracks are all winsome and “A Little Lower” could get them even more air play as time goes on and more and more people find out about this band that fuses the soul of two different genres, driving outlaw country and excitingly raw rock and roll.
