‘To Heaven And Back’ leads off LOST DOG STREET BAND’s fifth full-length, and seems to have all the boxes ticked for legitimacy in the Americana engine that’s been gathering steam over the past decade or so. Twang? Check! Jubilant, jugband feel? Gotcher covered, mister! Hard travelin’ lyrics ‘bout that long, rocky road to salvation? Amen! Still, the whole thing seems a bit too…clean, for lack of a better term; a little more antiseptic than what at least I’m looking for when it comes to this type of music. ‘Given Up Faith’ is a contemplative, lovelorn hymn to and of regret ala ‘There Stands The Glass’ and a thousand other songs, but loses none of its poignancy or relevance due to its familiarity of subject, while ‘Bring Back Someday’ pleas for the return of this lost love, set to a lazy swing rhythm/fiddle pattern, and these two tunes are where LOST DOG STREET BAND truly shine. Lyrically bleak and eloquent, yet energetic, ‘Without A Doubt’ is an Old West hanging/bad man ballad, and enjoyable, but I still find myself wishing that when founder Benjamin Tod & his cohorts swing into high gear more ruggedness/rawness would come into play.
All fades, though, when the title track arrives, dirge-like and dressed in mourners’ grey and black, Sunday best finery cast off by the wayside as we’re accompanied in funereal procession, forlorn, and instantly classic, eternal in its acknowledgment of our frail hold on this life. What would an Americana album be without a song about alcohol, and, though the drink as a theme winds through, ‘Lazy Moonshiner’ fits the bill.
Though Weight Of A Trigger isn’t a perfect album by any stretch, it slips on like a worn cowhide vest for those of us familiar with old time Country & Western/Southern Gothic music, and would be an ideal introduction for someone about to hit the trail for the first time.
Review By: Lord Randall
LOST DOG STREET BAND
Weight Of A Trigger
Anti-Corporate Music
4 / 6