Musical marriages of real-life married couples can be a tricky thing -- the road is littered with the artistic and romantic casualties of husband-and-wife teams who tried to make the shift from domestic bliss to a shared sonic identity.
Whitehorse, however -- a duo consisting of married Canadian singer/songwriters
Luke Doucet and
Melissa McClelland -- seem to have beaten the odds. Their self-titled debut record manages to amplify the musical personalities of both artists successfully.
McClelland and
Doucet had each been tending their own solo careers for a decade or so before starting
Whitehorse, and both artists had been making their own inroads on the Canadian roots music scene, but these tracks find them crafting a more forceful, visceral sound together. Not counting the brief sonic experiments that bookend the record,
McClelland and
Doucet offer up new versions of both the former's "Passenger 24" and the latter's "Broken," as well as three new songs and a cover of
Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire" that lends
the Boss'
Born in the U.S.A. tune a bit of a Sun Records-era
Johnny Cash feel. While both
Doucet and
McClelland have shifted back and forth from low-key, contemplative tunes to arch, angular productions on their own releases, the focus for
Whitehorse seems to be a swampy, bluesy brand of roots rock, with a side order of alt-country/Americana thrown in for extra flavor. For another pair of troubadours, this might be a less successful move, but as they've both shown in the past,
McClelland and
Doucet both have strong enough songwriting chops to make their stylistic shifts feel like more than mere genre exercises. ~ J. Allen