Reviews
Artist:Jeremy Pinnell Album: Goodnight LA
Label: SofaBurn
Tracks: 10
Website: https://www.jeremypinnell.com
Opening with 'Big Ol' Good', the Kentuckian singer-songwriter lays down a swaggering Southern barroom country rock with cranked up guitar breaks on a song he describes as being about what we put ourselves through for the sake of a relationship though the lines "I never did anything that I should and everybody knows I been up to no good … aint no amount of crying change a guy like me/It's a complicated thing and I understand cause I'm a flat natural born good timing man" don't really bear that out, and being more about "getting high on that rock and roll". That whole thing about not being able to change your ways is there too on the walking beat, resonator guitar coloured Waylonesque 'Wanna Do Something' ("Wanna do something else baby but my mind keeps saying I cant…Going left going right I been up all night the road got me praying for a 9 to 5/It's like I owe my soul to the company store I don't understand why I'm doing this for").
'Red Roses' takes it down into wistful soul country ballad territory ("the roses aren't as red as they used to be. But they are in my memories") suffused with strong hints of Van Morrison before it kicks back up with a musical and lyrical nod to classic chugging Bakersfield country on the missing home while out on the road 'Night Time Eagle' ("I miss my son my daughter and my wife back home/ Just leave me alone I hate talking on the phone/ And you all know I ain't doing nothing illegal/I'm just keeping it cool like a night time eagle").
He keeps with familiar themes for the chiming guitars of the midtempo honky tonk cheating number 'Never Thought Of No One' ("I knew right away I didn't know what to say When she told me she was alone/I didn't care hell I never do baby I was born to roam/And I had no intention when I failed to mention that I had me a girl of my own/And I didn't know why I looked her in the eye and said would you like me to follow you home") about not taking responsibility for your actions.
It's back to dance floor filling rock n rolling country and the impecunious life of a gigging musician for 'Doing My Best' with the wonderful decidedly non-glamorous opening line "I was doin my laundry in Butte Montana on the morning of the fourth of July", turning to a bluesier unhurried lope for the yodel falsetto 'Rosalie' that feels like a slowed down Fats Domino.
It's back to the twang for the equally measured rhythm, gospel-tinged 'Cryin', a solid midtempo chorus puncher but not perhaps not with the most sensitive new man refrain "what you crying for/You gunna make me not love you anymore". Referencing The Beach Boys ("A man once said I wish they all were California girls"), the title track is another dose of hooks-riddled twanging swagger that's as much The Mavericks as it is George Jones, here being the good husband and turning down temptation with the unexpected domestic bliss line "LA you got some pretty ladies/But they don't want babies and I do".
It ends, back in Jennings's outlaw country territory by making no apologies for who he is with 'Fighting Man' ("I was born a fighting man I grew up learning how to use my hands/
And then I joined a rock and roll band/ I was born a fighting man"), a snapshot of a typical rowdy roadhouse gig ("Somebody's trying to pick a fight/There's always one who tries to ruin the night/And then I noticed he was looking at me/A big boy about six foot three/So I hit him right between the eyes/That's how I learned to make a grown man cry") that evolves into a reformed character ("I don't fight much these days I guess I kinda just changed my ways") and a "Love your brother and your family" message, but "When somethings wrong you better take a stand" and be ready to bruise those knuckles.
Pinnell's not reinventing any country wheels, but if all you want out of the genre is something to howl along too or help your tears water the beer down the jukejoint, then he's definitely the man to call.
Mike Davies
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