With members from the US and UK, this six-piece have found themselves a DIY niche in the rainy North West, a location that’s surely influenced their tousled ’n’ torn country form.
For Carol opens this debut with a Burritos-like lap steel stroll that’s soon flattened by the chugging runaway blues of Fourth Street. After that, though, Kodiak Bear becomes much more brooding and reflective as gorgeous stand-out Time Plays Its Part yanks on the heart strings, and Iron Wall stretches out to a seven-minute Ashes, The Rain And I-tinged folk dirge.
The album could have probably been four songs shorter, and better produced, but with hints of Exile…, Calexico and Frontier Ruckus, it’s a loveable start.