Mark Lucas – Eat at Joe’s

The Dead Setters have been a fixture at Joe Maguire’s Pub during the Tamworth Festival for five years now and celebrate this anniversary with their first live release – Eat at Joe’s. Recorded during their 2009 Festival appearances, the CD captures a great vibe with a mix of old and new including four previously unreleased tracks. This is a snapshot of a group of experienced and talented musicians who draw on a broad range of influences from bluegrass to swing, dusty bar room honky tonk to rocking country blues, all flavoured with a distinctly Australian edge and an earthy feel for character and narrative. Also released with this package is a bonus DVD Live at the Cooks River Motor Boat Club, shot at the Sydney launch of their Slideshow Alley album in late 2008.
Mark Lucas & the Dead Setters – Eat at Joe’s by Chris Spencer
Joe’s in this instance is Joe Maguire’s Pub in Tamworth. The band was recorded live at the venue over two days earlier this year at the Tamworth [Country] Music festival. So included in the mix are sounds of people in the audience, [ I suspect I can hear some people talking! sacrilege! – wouldn’t happen at a folk venue!], applause and Mark Lucas introducing some of the songs. This provides an intimate listening experience and provides an accurate impression of what you might expect to hear if you were to see the band live. The band describes their sound as ranging from bluegrass to swing, bar-room honky tonk to country blues and ballads. Well on this live recording the fi rst two songs are country blues, much in the style of Mick Thomas (of Weddings Parties etc.); “Sweet Thing Ain’t Sweet” is swing; “Sweetheart” and “Rosie” are the ballads; “Sentimental” a rocky romp; “Bring Me Whiskey” another country infl uenced tune with some excellent lead guitar; “Price of Love” is rocky too. “Amor es Perdido” has a Latin/ Mexican beat; I enjoyed the upbeat “Your Town”; “Lean on Me” is not the Bill Withers’ song; Other songs were not particularly country; the instrumentation of the fi ddle and the steel guitar provide some of the elements of being country, but overall the band is adept at different feels. Fans of the band should seek out a copy of this cd. For those of you who are not familiar with the band, may like to have a listen fi rst, or seek a preview! I found it was a good introduction to the band, having heard a couple of their other albums recently. The recording is of a good quality, all the instruments can be heard and they are in a good balance with each other. The chatting of Mark Thomas in between songs adds to the listening experience, even though one could get tired of this over time. If you were in the audience at the time, purchase is a must! – if you enjoyed the performance that is! The recording goes for over an hour, comprising 17 tracks so the album is good value. I could get to like this album.