Contrary to contemporary music trends, Scotland Barr and the Slow Drags do not fit neatly into a “scene,” nor do they care to. Instead, they play gritty, melodic songs that float somewhere between an old school 60’s/70’s folk rock aesthetic and a contemporary alt-country, Americana furnace blast. Barr’s disturbing yet comfortable boozy vocal style and emotionally incisive songwriting sit front and center, flanked by a 6 piece outfit that can deliver weepy grooves, jangly tin-pan alley pop, suicidal ballads, garage rock, grinding two-steps and near psychedelic opuses, all while sounding like a true band. Acoustic guitar, pedal steel and keyboards tangle with overdriven guitar; four part harmonies recall the Beach Boys and the Band; full throttle drums irreverently confuse country and rock. Their style can be reminiscent of Steve Earle, Elvis Costello, the Pogues and Pink Floyd, all within a single song. With influences ranging from Merle Haggard to the Flaming Lips, their sound undeniably borrows from the classics, draws from their contemporaries and crosses many borders - yet remains distinctively their own.
Their new CD, All the Great Aviators Agree, was released on May 20, 2008. More up-tempo and experimental than their singer/songwriter oriented debut, Legionnaires’ Disease, this CD promises to be a substantial benchmark in the evolving work of Scotland Barr and the Slow Drags.
Reviews
You would think, judging by the luckless, 100-proof subjects on this album, that Scotland Barr has seen the underside of the bar and the soul-crushing side of relationships far too often to have retained a sense of humor, let alone to have enough unpickled brain cells to recall more than a blurry kaleidoscope of disjointed disasters. Yet All the Great Aviators Agree, this Portland, Oregon, sextet's second disc, is chock-full of near-cinematic, often hilarious details served up with self-deprecating charm via Barr's rugged, Tom Russell-esque rasp.
There are countless memorable couplets citing wife-stealing, flat-chested women and naked waltzes, plus wry descriptions, from the Vatican (“It's a lot like they all say – it's big”) to some of the most loveable, laughable losers in recent memory.
Barr's stories, tunes, and vocals would be more than enough to sustain a crackerjack solo act, but it's all backed up by a fluid, fluent combo boasting ace chops and well-placed harmony vocals. The Slow Drags' sound – highlighted by Chris Hubbard's rippling-water piano flights and the deft guitar interplay between Zach Hinkelman's electric and Bryan Daste's pedal steel – seems weighted toward country-rock, but the overall flexibility and collective catholic tastes recall the heyday of British pub rock.
-Jim Musser, No Depression
Music that punches the heart like a fist with brass knuckles. Barr and
the boys should feel proud of producing something some great bands never pull
off: an attractive, wholly listenable album that hits all the right chords with
powerful, painful and beautiful accuracy.
-Joshua Sommers, the Oregonian
What struck me right away about Scotland was his voice. It's one of those smoky, scratchy and very distinctive voices that really demands you pay attention. Of course the songwriting and fine work by the Slow Drags make sure you pay attention to more than the vocals!
-Don Zelazny, americanaroots.com
Overflowing with raw, rough and tumble reality that made
me feel the pain and truth with lyrical grit and presentation in a class of
its own, which is saying a lot considering all the quality music that I
receive.
-Eddie Russell ,
Outlaw for Peace radio, TX
Scotland Barr and the Slow Drags make roots rock with an
uncompromisingly independent spirit. With a sandpaper voice that's far from
pretty enough for country radio, Barr's not writing for a top 40 demographic;
he's spilling his guts, dropping the bile on the table.
-Michael Sutton,
CDreviews.com
The first five tracks on this CD are so strong that it
makes one wonder why the group has not been picked up yet. Roots rock rarely
achieves the lyrical and musical heights that Scotland Barr and the Slow Drags
reach here.
-Kyrby Raynes, Ink 19
Scotland Barr and
the Slow Drags is not your typical rock band; for one thing, their lead singer's
vocal cords sound as if they were marinated in a gravy of whiskey and chewing
tobacco. Barr and the Slow Drags offer impressions of dark nights, lonely
places and flashes of love affairs gone awry. Taking in their music is like
dragging on a Clint Eastwood hand rolled cigarette at the bar of a dangerous saloon.
-Nathalie Weinstein, Daily Barometer, Corvallis
Sounding world-weary and out of luck, Barr catches the
downcast, drunken mood of a burned-out cowboy, linked to folk in its spirit but
more to the lonesome country of Hank Williams, Sr. in its delivery.
-Alternative Rock
Review
Scotland Barr takes us down the road of broken dreams -
burying those lost dreams in the bottom of an empty glass. "So you just line
'em up in those paper Dixie cups" on the excellent Saving Grace.Scotland
should visit AA.
-Americana UK
Scotland Barr
reminds us that the art of good songwriting and lyric crafting are not
dead. This is poetry with all the rough edges of life left on. LEGIONNAIRES
DISEASE is an astounding accomplishment and is destined to put Scotland Barr
and the Slow Drags on the Americana map.
-Rob
Stroup, Producer, The
Imprints
These songs have got the universal truths covered in all
ways, on all planes,
in all galaxies, in every language known and otherwise. These songs are
fantastic. The recording is fabulous too, but I am more caught up in the "call
the radio station and find out who did that song" emotional response right now.
-Allison
Picard, Lucky Duck Productions
Eclectic, sincere
music of this type is the reward we spend our time looking for. The whole enchilada here folks!
-Chris K, Happi
Skratch Entertainment
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