(Dear Life Records)
Ironically enough, Florry’s ultra-charming The Holey Bible reaches its most ascendant moment after the false ending of its closing track, From Where You Are. Here, the Francie Medosch-led alt-country collective fully gels with a hot guitar lead, desperately sawed strings, and an assured bass line. Like the book upon which the album’s title is derived, a glorious ending is assured but the joy is mainly in the aimlessness of the getting there. Medosch wears her influences heavily on gingham checked sleeves, particularly on the opening salvo of loosely strung-together songs. Neil Young’s Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, KISS’s Rock and Roll All Nite, and The Rolling Stone’s faux country classic Far Away Eyes are hybridized and wrestled around with in scrawling out the band’s calling card. Big Fall (a do-over from their prior album that evidences the group’s growth) and From Where You Are play it closest to the honky tonk vest, while the gorgeous countrypolitan ILYILY points to Lambchop’s earliest days where what seems haphazard also provides the promise of openly creative moves to come. But best of all is Cowgirl in a Ditch, where Medosch declares herself “the great American highway in us all,” an anthem for the band to rally around while taking their show out on the road. To borrow a phrase from the Great Almighty: Bless their fuzzy little country fried hearts.
14 September, 2023 – 04:03 — Mark Moody
