The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow – Band Together
Self Released – 15 November 2019
A five-piece roots-rock singer-songwriter outfit from Massachusetts, this, which also features drums from Steve Gorman of the Black Crowes and Wilco bassist Pat Sansone, is their first studio album following a live debut and two EPs, the most recent of which features live versions of the first five of the numbers here. Of these, it opens with the infectious Pass The Peace (all five sing but there’s no indication of who on what), a warm, country-soul number with Tory Hanna on trumpet and gospel back up vocals before Chris Merenda’s bluegrass banjo surfaces for the bluesy rock Don’t Cross My Land, no less than Arlo Guthrie (Merenda was his drummer on the 40th anniversary Alice’s Restaurant tour) guesting on harmonica in a song protesting road building across the family land, the narrator declaring “No Sir, No Sir…My family built it with their hands and I don’t expect you to understand”.
Sansone lays down a funky bass groove intro that runs though Rose On The Vine, trumpet again embellishing a track that calls to mine Alabama 3 in its bluesy riffing then, by complete contrast, a kiddie choir arrives to open the slow soulful Following Your Tears, another number infused with gospel influences that builds to a tumultuous climax.
They calm down as trumpet introduces and punctuates the softer but still soulful feel of Reasons only to kick things back up again on the electric guitar charge and hooks-dripping Rock & Roll Déjà Vu, a fine addition to the library of rock‘n’roll radio songs.
The first of the newer numbers, the energetic Perfect Day has Merenda giving the banjo some serious picking as, up in court, he explains to the judge “you cannot trust this man, he’s a rockabilly junkie and I’ m not the biggest fan of this style of a genre”, heading into the cascading scales balladry of the anthemic mid-tempo Hey Lady and, underpinned by Gorman’s thumping drums and banjo, the country trucking rhythms of I Bet The World (“I love you/Times the ocean and the moon/and the sun and all the stars that shone/ from July into June”).
They end in anthemic mood, returning to a gospel swayalong for Lay Down Your Arms, a dedication of love and call to declare a truce that, riding organ waves, carries hints of both Van Morrison’s Celtic country soul and Dennis Locorriere’s classic Dr.Hook emoting. Cutting across Americana genres but maintains a cohesive sound and identity with melodies and choruses designed to fire up any crowd, this is a terrific album and definitely one treaty to which you really need to be a signatory.
The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow performs six songs off “Band Together,” live at Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA:
http://www.thewhiskeytreaty.com/