The list of drummers who've made the jump to becoming first-rate frontmen isn't especially long, but
Mark Pickerel is doing his bit to fill it out a little more with his second solo album, 2008's
Cody's Dream.
Pickerel previously kept time for
the Screaming Trees and
Truly, and has played on the road and in the studio with the likes of
Robyn Hitchcock,
Neko Case,
Brandi Carlile, and some guy named
Kurt Cobain, but as it happens he's also a fine singer, with a rich, expressive baritone that can slide up into an impressive upper register, and he's no slouch as a songwriter, either.
Cody's Dream often walks the dark, lonely path that former colleague
Mark Lanegan followed on his solo efforts, with blues and country accents visible in the mix, but
Pickerel can also kick up the tempo and sound jaunty when he's of a mind (cue up "Leaving with the Swamptones" or "Cherokee Grove"), and he and his band don't mind rockin' out when the right song comes along (such as "She Calls" and the title cut).
Pickerel clearly isn't afraid of letting a melodic hook make its way into his songs, and he manages to do so without robbing the music of its potent atmospherics. And
Pickerel's accompanists serve him well on these sessions, including
Ian Moore on guitar and keys, brothers
Johnny (guitar) and
Jimmy Sangster (bass), and
Steve Fisk, who produced the album and plays Mellotron on two cuts.
Pickerel's stories of losers and badmen out on the road are often dark, but they're never dreary, and there's plenty of fine and engaging stuff in
Cody's Dream that's well worth investigating.