Nearly everything I guessed from the album's appearance turned out to be correct, which is amazing when you consider said appearance promised Southwestern alt-country that was inexplicably co-produced by a member of Fishbone.
I did get one big thing wrong in the guess, the album's tone/subject matter. There's nothing apocalyptic, disturbing, drugged out, or even religious about any of the lyrics, nor would Eric Layton Malmstrom--who sang and played every instrument but the drums and one track's guitar--have been able to convincingly put such things across. He has a pleasant, laid back voice that reminds me of a mellower Tom Petty, which is perfectly fine but isn't gonna get you to the end of days. So I was way off there, but let me remind you that there's flaming barbed wire on the cover. That sets certain expectations, as does the title. Calling this record The Devil's Rope is like putting a bear sticker on a horse and expecting it to grow fangs.
None of which is intended as a put down, I just got faked out. What is a put down is that except for the ambiguously political, 9/11-referencing Rescue Me, the lyrics are so bland that I couldn't tell you what Malmstrom was singing about. I'm not so much bothered by that though, since the music is really interesting.
First things first: Fisher's credit and the shout out to Kanal aren't just signs of a cross-genre friendship; Stuck In The Middle is an honest to G-d ska/reggae song and Malmstrom sounds just as at home playing it as he does the Americana tracks. It's anchored by an acoustic rhythm guitar which keeps some of that alt-country feel at the same time, a seemingly incompatible mixture that here sounds both great and effortless.
The same descriptor applies to the electric guitar leads, which have a liquid quality and slight reverb that would sound right at home on a psychedelic record. Here, they add something unique to Bretheren Sol's sound while coming across as a perfectly natural fit. The trippy feel of the desert, maybe? Nor are the leads and the ska the only surprising but perfectly integrated touch; there's accordion in Across The Desert, some mariachi worked into Federales, and castanets in Sent To Protect. Malmstrom's songwriting is nicely varied too, with some (relatively) amped up roots rockers, mid-tempo numbers, and even a waltz on Heroes and Villains. And the album sounds great, very well recorded and perfectly mixed.
Devil's Rope does run out of steam a bit at the end, but for how much of a subtly unique spin on Americana you get, that and the lyrics are a small price to pay. Actually paying it may prove difficult; Discogs doesn't have an entry (I should probably make one--just what I need, another project) and Amazon's never heard of it. There are a bunch of copies on eBay for $20-$30, and my local Zia's got one for $10. Though for you streamers out there, yeah it's on Spotify.
I was hoping I could find more info on the band but apart from a couple glancing references in local papers, the best I can do is an archived version of the home page to Bretheren Sol's long defunct site.
Cool cover, probably cooler than the music for me.