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Ethan Daniel Davidson
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Free The Ethan Daniel Davidson Five
Times Beach Records
Release: 2/15/2005
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Rated:
Review by:
Jason Warner
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I consider myself a fan of what you would call alt-country
music. What I mean is that I enjoy bands like Uncle Tupelo,
Wilco, Son Volt, Whiskeytown, Ryan Adams...the list goes
on. I guess alt-country is a label we apply to modern indie
rock that uses lap steel, fiddle, banjo, etc. in combination
with the guitar, bass and drums that we are used to.
Supposedly alt-country takes traditional roots rock and
infuses it with a more punk philosophy. But, that doesn't
really take all artists into account. Steve Earle for instance is
not what I would consider alt-country, but he possess more
punk ethos and f-you attitude than most of the Mohawked,
tattooed types claim to. All this talk of genre classification
has me dizzy. Ethan Daniel Davidson is easy to describe
though, and I won't use any of these classifications to do so.
Davidson and crew are a clear-cut example of a mediocre
bar band playing uninspiring bar-band-type roots
rock.
On their latest album, Free The Ethan Daniel Davidson
5, the group fails to say anything by simply trying to
say too much. There are songs here with the flavor of
traditional country, all out rockers, line-dancing two step
numbers and light rock numbers...and all of them plagued
by weak lyrics. It's hard for me to even take Mr. Davidson
seriously - I would expect more from an 11th grade poetry
class. He covers topics from a "dirty little whore" on "Your
Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore," to beer
goggles on "I Can't Drink You Pretty." But, the majority of
the album has a political slant, speaking out against
everything from large corporations to Nashville (how
original), to Spanish-American war politics and the
government. Again, trying to cram so many topics in as to
lose all focus on making any clear statement about any one
topic.
Free The Ethan Daniel Davidson 5 is not all
negative though. If I could just turn off the lyrics I would
really enjoy this album. The singing is good. Davidson has a
pleasing voice that goes from soft and inviting to gritty and
ferocious, and the vocal melodies are nice. But, the lyrics
just take away any desire to listen to what he has to say.
The instrumentation, however, is great. The production
sounds good. All instruments are heard loud and clear and
the playing is outstanding. The guitars snarl, the Hammond
organ whirs and the drummer beats the skins flawlessly.
There are great guitar solos throughout the 14 tracks, in
almost every song in fact. Harmonica enters from some
flavor and I think I even heard a baritone sax on "No Gods,
No Masters." The band obviously has a lot of talent and
shows that they can play a lot of different styles.
At the end of the day, Free The Ethan Daniel Davidson
5 just doesn't excite me enough to recommend it. Die
hard fans of roots rock might really enjoy it if they can get
past the protest/tongue in cheek lyrical content, because the
music is really good. Unfortunately the music alone doesn't
do enough to redeem this record for me. |
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