DRAG THE RIVER: ESTA LOCO LP ALT COUNTRY ALL NOBODYS

DRAG THE RIVER: Esta Loco LP (Menace To Sobriety Records, USA, 2006).  Brand-new, unplayed, still-sealed condition.  (This is the "It's Crazy" album from 2006 pressed on limited edition vinyl released by Fort Collins' own Menace To Sobriety Records.)

Fort Collins, Colorado-based Alt Country act featuring members of ALL, The Nobodys and Pinhead Circus.

Track Listing

leavin' in the morning

tired & fired

Mr. Crews

Me & Joe drove out to California...

Beautiful & Damned

strange

Amazing G.

cousins

dirty lips

Fire & Flood

paradise grounded

the cause & the cure

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Drag the River might be the world’s ultimate buddyrock band. It was formed about a decade ago when two pals (Armchair Martian’s Jon Snodgrass and All singer Chad Price) began strumming some alt-country tunes when their punk acts weren’t rocking the joint. Its shows are frequently casual, off-the-cuff and completely low-key affairs that bring living-room intimacy to a small club rather than the hyperbole of a rock show. It’s all about good times, man, especially for Drag’s dual songwriters.

It’s Crazy swims through the sea of empty bottles, smooshed hearts and lonely and/or happy drunks in an attempt to bring listeners into the tight-knit yet laid-back kinship that’s been Drag’s calling card since day one. In many ways, it works: Where the band’s back catalog frequently felt like a couple ex-punks trading country licks with a pickup band in tow, It’s Crazy expands the act’s usually minimal singer/songwriter jams into tunes that usually sound like polished products of a full band working together. Lap steel player Spacey Casey does more than fill strummy gaps between lyrics. He provides an essential ingredient to It’s Crazy; the rhythm section, bassist J.J. Nobody and new drummer Dave Barker, picks up a bit of slack. It’s Crazy is a tighter, leaner and more polished Drag the River than you’ve ever seen.

At the same time, It’s Crazy doesn’t sacrifice Drag the River’s casual, buddy-jam atmosphere. Save for a sole electric number, “Me and Joe Drove Out to California,” reminiscent of the long-lost Armchair Martian, It’s Crazy is still nothing more than Snodgrass and Price’s opportunity to cut loose and have a bit of fun. Although they operate under the Drag umbrella, Price and Snodgrass offer distinctly different songwriting voices. Price’s a humble, salt-of-the-Earth, tear-in-my-beer kind of fella, and provides the band with grounding in AM radio country. “Leavin’ in the Morning” is a brokenhearted ballad complete with weeping lap steel that your grandparents could appreciate as easily as you. “Beautiful and Damned” strips the college-professor pretense of Iron and Wine out of the folk-roots formula and “Amazing G.” crams the booze-and-blues ethos of Bakersfield into a folksy, if not altogether alluring, package.

Snodgrass adds an element of barroom poetry to the mix. He injects his straightforward alt-country strumming with the sort of deliberately vague non-sequiturs you’d expect to see scrawled on the back of a label peeled off a beer bottle. Has twang, he has roots and he has more soul than the entire population of Iowa combined. “Strange” and “Paradise Grounded” put his raspy, smoker’s voice atop a plodding, weepy ballad. “Tired and Fired” is a smoking chunk of alt-country fueled by a love and respect for country’s golden age, with lap steel wringing every last bit of heartbreak out of the track. As usual, Snodgrass’ side of the songwriting dichotomy outshines Price’s; it’s hard to imagine either of them flying solo, however.

Price and Snodgrass are buddies. They’ve turned over most of their lineup, making new buddies and losing some old, since last time we saw ’em. And while It’s Crazy is still a quintessential buddy jam, Drag the River spices up its songs enough to make us feel like we’re listening to an album proper rather than a few impromptu jams. Somehow, they didn’t lose their chemistry in the change. Buddy, this one’s for you.