The debut album of Dieselhed mainstay
Virgil Shaw, the minimalist country-rock
Quad Cities amply demonstrates the breadth of
Shaw's empathetic songwriting ability. If ever there was an heir apparent to country-rock founder
Gram Parsons, surely it is him.
The vocal similarities between
Shaw and the former
Byrds guitarist are uncanny.
Shaw's strumming, however, echoes more of a folk tradition than
Parsons' traditional country sound. Complementing
Shaw's six-string are Jeff Palmer of
Mommyheads, Greg Freeman of
Pell Mell, and bandmate
Danny Heifetz of Dieselhed and
Mr. Bungle. The album starts off slowly, with the plaintiff wails of a metaphorical "Water Colors." Track by track, the album's stripped-down simplicity melds well with
Shaw's voice. The nuts and bolts version of "Carving Soap," though, doesn't quite live up to the fuller version on Dieselhed's Shallow Water Blackout. "Eureka," however, is vintage
Shaw: nostalgic, mundane, and inexplicably beautiful. Singing about building doll houses and burning them down and writing his name in his own clothes so as not to lose them,
Shaw's wittily self-effacing lyrics betray his irrepressible ingenuity. Finally, the last track, "For Your Precious Love," deals Dieselhed fans a bit of a surprise. It's a love song, devoid of irony, sarcasm, or witticisms. The song works well, but it's hard not to expect him, given his songwriting history, to pull out the rug from underneath. ~ Kieran McCarthy