As the leader of the Australian Americana band
the Wagons,
Henry Wagons always has romanticized the American South and West, but on his solo EP debut
Expecting Company? he gets to indulge himself in a way he never has before: he gets to create a roundabout tribute to
Lee Hazlewood's hazy, lazy cinematic dreamscapes of the American West. All but one of the seven songs on this EP are duets and only one is with a male. That would be "I Still Can't Find Her," a song co-written and sung with
Go-Between Robert Forster, but the pair still manage to create a dust-speckled widescreen vista on their collaboration, one that fits neatly next to the five female duets here. Whether
Wagons is singing with
the Kills'
Alison Mosshart,
Jenn Grant, Patience Hodgson, or Sophia Brous,
Expecting Company? conjures the ghost of Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra, particularly the narcotic crawl of "Some Velvet Morning," but the nifty trick he pulls off here is that he doesn't adhere too closely to the original blueprint. This is slyly spare and economical in its texture, using very little to suggest a lot, and he's wild enough to kick up the tempo when necessary ("A Hangman's Work Is Never Done," where he winds up sounding more
Nick Cave than
Johnny Cash).
The Wagons have a strong track record of their own but there's something special to
Expecting Company?; when paired with other singers, the overarching vision of
Henry Wagons stands out clearer than it ever has. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine