The Howlin' Brothers Trouble (CD)

(Continental Rose) 13 tracks - digipack

Somewhere in the Midwest, the radio reception in the car is full of crackling, the stations outdo each other with “fire-and-brimstone-preachers”. Suddenly, a raspy, almost overlapping voice creaks out: “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the greatest musical show on earth.”
No, that's not how the HOWLIN' BROTHERS' new album “Trouble” begins, but it would fit in well with this exuberant record. “Experience the famous brothers from Ithaca, New York on our studio stage”, the speaker would shout, and it wouldn't matter that the ‘howling’ three aren't brothers at all and have long lived in Nashville instead of ‘upstate New York’.
“Experience a band that gives you everything,” the announcer would continue to praise. “Wild country that tastes like freshly smuggled whisky. Finger-licking-picking singalongs like from grandma's porch. Cajun tunes from the depths of the Delta, as fresh as gumbo. Heartbreaking moonlight ballads. The devil at the crossroads. The rebirth of Matthew Ryan as a storyteller. And a honky-tonk stomper with skirts flying higher than allowed.”
And all this, the talk show host would add, in just 35 minutes. Where else could there be such a show than on this station and with the HOWLIN' BROTHERS?
And for that good half hour, the desert would suddenly come alive and the Midwest would be the hub of the world, and you'd just wish you could happen to be staying in the very shed where the HOWLIN' BROTHERS are putting on a live show that makes their record that much wilder and livelier.
And with this thought, even the “preacher” on the radio is easier to bear on the journey ...