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COAL PORTERS
Turn The Water On, Boy
(Prima)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- After last year's ragged live reunion release of some of the Long Ryders' best-known songs, former frontman Sid Griffin and his English acoustic bandmates the Coal Porters deliver an album that sounds like something from Griffin's native Kentucky, not his adopted London. This is genuine mountain music, with lively melodies, earnest singing and shimmering production. The instrumental restraint, the lower-register vocals, and the absence of high harmonies broaden its appeal beyond the bluegrass audience. "Final Wild Son" (a Ryders banjo-mandolin re-do), "Silver Raven" (an homage to Gene Clark), and the swinging "These Four Walls" ring true. Byrds-man Chris Hillman lends his mando to "Mr. Guthrie", a symbolic link that shows where all of this is coming from. It's not just the best of the three Porters albums, it's the most heartfelt effort by Griffin yet.

-- BUZZ MCCLAIN
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Buzz McClain.