JOHN TRAIN
The Sugar Ditch (Record Cellar)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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As in their previous outings, John Train create wonderful accompaniment to the terrific songs of vocalist/guitarist/composer Jon Houlon. This time out it's a song cycle devoted to an imaginary tale that Houlon has constructed around a painting he acquired on a road trip to the Mississippi delta, a somewhat gothic tale of tangled love and murder. Taken apart, the album is a collection of songs which stand admirably on their own. Taken together, the effect is nearly cinematic in effect. In indeed, in just a few musical sketches, Houlon creates a tale that could make a movie as gripping as any novel might.

Although he'd returned to Philadelphia before he began work on the songs, Houlon had clearly brought more than the painting home from the delta with him. While his work generally falls somewhere in the country music spectrum, the tone this time is pure Southern, and deep Southern at that, in pacing and a certain kind of swampy musical darkness that those not from the region rarely capture effectively. Houlon must have found the folks that bottle that feeling, and brought home enough to soak in.

You'll find yourself hitting the play button over and over to enjoy the great pleasure of soaking in another disc of John Train.

Track List:

Theme * The Pulling * Shame On You * The Sugar Ditch * How Am I Ever Gonna Get Home? * Stage Left * Are You Like Me? * Robinsonville * Relief * Randy, Come Home * Supposed to Wait * What If Ray Charles Weren't Blind? * Gene Washington * Keepers 'n' Randy

[Pick this up at CDBaby.]

© 2004 - Shaun Dale