Country music may be the chosen soundtrack for the Bible-Belt-wearing American
Religious Right, but Chicago's Freakwater have long existed at the opposite
end of the theological musical spectrum, as befits a drinkin'-n'-cryin'
combo, helmed by the sweet/sour vocals of co-authors Janet Beveridge
Bean and Catherine Irwin, who've always had a fiercely independent, essentially
punk-rock spirit to their lonesome-and-blue bluegrass. It's especially
fitting given that they've shown themselves to be open acolytes of Woody
Guthrie, whose best-known song ("This Land Is Your Land") was, on
the books of the Bonneville Power Administration, both a tribute to hydroelectric
power and a critical retort to Irving Berlin's hideous anthem "God Bless
America." So far, Irwin's most glorious lyrical tribute to atheism's
own brand of believing came with "Gone to Stay," from the fourth Freakwater
record Old Paint, where she and Beveridge, in heavenly harmony,
sing "There's nothing so pure as the kindness of an atheist/ A simple
lack of unselfishness/ That never asks to be repaid." But, by Thinking
of You…, Freakwater's seventh time around, Irwin's less sweet in
her sentiments, croaking first, in "Loserville," "Why don't
you fall down on your knees and pray?" as the most savage putdown; then,
amidst rousing closing-number "Hi Ho Silver," she sardonically demands, "Tell
me why your God is so divine." Given that that song's metaphors are about
blood shed in vain, two wrongs not making a right, and a gung-ho notion
of
solving problems via violence, you can probably take it as being Irwin's
anthem for the State of her Nation, the song even closing with a rousing
horn section — courtesy of members of Califone, who do the fleshing-out
and rolling-tape here — that comes on like a cavalry riding over
the range. It's a grandstanding conclusion to a record that, in many
senses, fails to match the thrills of previous Freakwater recordings.
Coming six years, and two separate solo albums, after 1999's not-so-prophetic-now End
Time, it reintroduces the outfit anew, born again musically more
sedate, yet lyrically more searing. |
