Track Dogs – Where To Now?
Mondegreen Records – 18 March 2022
Having had the pleasure of meeting Track Dogs at several festivals in recent years, I’d confidently predict that arriving anywhere in the world, they’d rapidly hunt out kindred spirits and start making music with them. Increasingly, this thirst for broadening their musical palette is reflected in their recordings, collaboration provided one track on 2018’s Kansas City Out Groove, six tracks on 2019’s Fire on the Rails and nine tracks on the new album, Where to Now? But fear not, all the hallmarks of Track Dogs’ unique sound are still present, woven, along with the new elements, into an even richer tapestry.
The album opens in classic Track Dogs style with Every Dog’s Day, Garrett Wall’s vocal starting over a typically lively percussive backing of Garrett’s guitar, mandolin and bass from Dave Mooney, and cajon from Robbie K. Jones, Howard Brown’s trumpet filling between the vocal lines. Dave’s mandolin is also heard on four other tracks. It’s become a notably more significant component of the band’s music, especially so on Less Than Equal, where mandolin is in the foreground of the mix and Dave takes the solo lead on the instrumental break.
As Every Dog’s Day develops, the sound swells with the addition of strings that stay in the background but tellingly lift the arrangement to another level. They come courtesy of Nashville’s Eli Bishop. Playing in the Grand Ole Opry house band, he’s a fixture on the Nashville recording scene but also no stranger to Track Dogs; he provided string arrangements for three tracks on their previous album, but this time he’s contributed his string magic to just one other track, River of Gold. It opens with the strings and rhythms set by Robbie’s cajon and Dave’s bass line, the addition of trumpet and a couple of phrases in Spanish ensure this track has a full-on Latin vibe and, just to dispel any lingering doubt, there’s a couple of references to the “land of the blue agave”, the cactus that’s the base of tequila.
The strings on five further tracks involve the UK-based pairing of Chris Demetriou, violin, and Adrianne Wininsky, cello. No random choice this, Adrianne and Robbie have known each other for well over twenty years, having been at music college together back in Ohio. Chris and Adrianne, for the most part, both write and play the string arrangements but on A Time Like This, Howard has joined in, composing an arrangement that Chris and Adrianne play. There’s no better illustration of the impact the collaboration with Chris and Adrianne has made than the first of the five tracks, She Sang Songs. A gentle, lyrical song, it would be guaranteed to stand out from the lively, highly danceable music that is the Track Dogs trademark. While Garrett’s voice has always paired well with strings (check out Abi’s Lullaby from Fire on the Rails), what makes She Sang Songs special is, from the outset, the cello blends with Garrett’s voice on the melody and when, at the end of the verse, Howard joins with muted trumpet the effect is complete, and the music wraps around you like a fleece blanket.
It’s typical of the band to follow this with a song, Donna Lola, that is one of the liveliest on the album. Track Dogs habitually assigns the writing credit for their songs to the whole band but for this track, Delories Dunn gets a co-writer credit and also plays autoharp. The song, though, remains very much Robbie’s brainchild, born out of a fascination with the wild career of Eliza Gilbert. Under her stage name, Lola Montez, she managed, during her relatively short life in the first half of the nineteenth century, to scandalise high and not so high society on three continents. Fascinating as Lola’s tale may be, equally intriguing is that Cathy Jordan takes the lead vocal. With a backing led by Robbie’s banjo and Simon Care on a distinctly cajon-tinged melodeon, her vocals are delivered in a voice that surely belongs at least 3000 miles west of her Sligo home. A far cry it may be from her usual role fronting Dervish, but any who caught her as part of the short-lived trio, The Unwanted, won’t be too surprised by it. Not to be outdone by Simon, the other two members of Banter, Tim Walker and Nina Zella, add their instruments and voices to the arrangement, and the combination of all nine musicians with an almost unbelievable story make for an unforgettable song.
It’s unlikely to have escaped the attention of anyone with an interest in Track Dogs that, a couple of years back, having released a video for their version of the James Taylor classic, Carolina In My Mind, a link to it appeared on James’ Instagram page. And, if you did miss it, the guys, still glowing from the compliment, will soon put you right. With the release of this album, there’s now both a recording and a new video; they premiered on Folk Radio back in January. For the verses, Garrett and Howard take turns on vocal lead whilst the chorus is an ideal opportunity for all four voices to combine in the harmonies that are such an essential component of the Track Dogs sound.
The final collaboration comes on Empty Tracks, and it’s not so much a collaboration as a partial takeover. The Potato Monsters are an alternative outlet for Robbie’s insatiable appetite for making music. Robbie teams up with Javiolín Rodriguez, Nick Haughton, and Dani-el Sword (not necessarily their real names) in a band local to the mountain village Robbie calls home. The village is also one end of a historic mountain railway and, with a name like Track Dogs, it was inevitable there would sooner or later be a song in celebration of it. The Monsters bring in fiddle, guitar and whistle, Robbie taking the vocal lead and, for the ending, leaves his cajon in favour of a panderetas (tambourine) solo, The Potato Monsters collectively adding a light-hearted touch to the album.
The final two tracks are listed as “bonus”. The penultimate track is At A Time Like This, a song the band released as an online freebie during lockdown. That’s maybe why they consider it a bonus, but I’d say it’s a treat to have it on the album. The last track is Last Lick of Light, and while this has recognisable differences from the usual Track Dogs material, it’s a strong closer and by no means a filler. The big difference is that it’s a Garrett solo; he provides guitar and both melody and harmony vocals. He recorded it during lockdown and circulated it around the band, expecting further contributions. The consensus was that it was complete as it stood. A gentle song that will serve as a perfect reminder of the isolation that most of us had to contend with over the last two years. An isolation that, for Garrett, clearly encouraged the production of music haunting in its simplicity.
As with so many musicians, that physical isolation set Garrett, Robbie, Howard and Dave off on a journey into the online world. The glorious music on Where To Now? shows just how productive that journey became. By the time of final recording, mixing and mastering, they were able to use their familiar haunt of Playground Studios in Madrid and the services of their regular producer Germán Gutiérrez, ensuring the album has the quality of sound we’ve become used to over the last three or four albums. But these twelve tracks have a freshness and a variety borne out of both old and new collaborations, and they also show how much the Track Dogs themselves have grown over the last few years. There’s a swelling confidence that enables them to experiment both musically and in their storytelling. In so doing, they’ve produced a set of songs that are bound to delight their many established followers and ensnare a host of new ones. While Track Dogs have always been able to produce music that makes you dance, here, some songs will keep you in your seat, absorbed in the lyrics. Some will make you sad; some will make you laugh; they’ll all give you 100% entertainment.
The band will be playing an 8-date UK tour (see below) to coincide with a more extensive run in the pipeline.
Track Dogs UK Tour
MARCH 2022
Thu 17 – Swanton Novers, Norfolk Swanton Novers Village Hall
Fri 18 – Lowdham, Notts. Lowdham Village Hall
Sat 19 – Ascott-Under-Wychwood, Oxon. Tiddy Hall
Sun 20 – Saltaire, W. Yorks. The Live Room, Caroline Social Club
Thu 24 – Bath Chapel Arts Centre
Fri 25 – Sutton, London The Sound Lounge
Sat 26 – London, The Green Note
Sun 27 – Broadstairs, Sarah Thorne Theatre
Website: http://trackdogsmusic.com/
Photo credit: Miguel Palomar