Josh T. Pearson picked up pared-down rock’n’roll just where it had been left by Jeffrey Lee Pierce of the Gun Club and the Nick Cave of the Bad Seeds. Up until now, Pearson has been defined for many by his masterpiece, the double-barrelled, messianic work, The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads that he brought out in 2001 with his trio Lift To Experience. He brought out other pieces as part of the same outfit, and also some solo works (Last Of The Country Gentlemen en 2011), but that was really his moment of glory.
With The Straight Hits! (every track has the word "straight" in it), which he says he recorded in just a few days, Josh T. Pearson is returning to rock'n'roll with a Bible in his left hand and a guitar in his right. Like a man possessed, the Texan vomits out blues, rockabilly, psychedelia, country and plenty of other gobbets of whatever he has been digesting. What's more, he loves to quote scripture (surely quite without realising...), like on Give It To Me Straight where he apes the Jagger of Rocks Off or on Straight At Me where he takes off 96 Tears by ? And The Mysterians. But it's not all sound and fury, and Pearson throws in a good brace of depressive, beautiful ballads (Straight Down Again, Whiskey Straight Love and A Love Song (Set Me Straight)) which lend even more credibility to this finely-played and written rock'n'roll project without sugaring the pill or rounding off the hard edges. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz