Search - Mark Lemhouse :: The Great American Yard Sale

Mr Lemhouse Does it Again!

Rick Saunders | Pullman, WA | 01/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mark Lemhouse:

The Great American Yard Sale:

Yellow Dog Records 2005



I was talking with a friend the other day and I mentioned having trouble writing about the new Mark Lemhouse album. My friend, who has listened to The Great American Yard Sale as well said "why? Are you too startled by its greatness?" Yeah. I am. Maybe startled isn't the word because after his first album Big Lonesome Radio I expected good things in the future from him but dang, who knew? I sure didn't want to sell the man short. But like Yellow Dog Records label mate Chris Cotton Mr. Lemhouse has done his fair share of record Listening and knows how the history rolls and how to rock it. The Great American Yard Sale starts out deceptively enough with Scarlet. A sweet and innocent little banjo line then Lemhouse drops a rump shakin' wallop that recalls to me photographer Bill Steber's shots of the big beautiful ladies movin' and grindin' slow and low down in the jukes of North Mississippi. Mr. Lemhouse and his band lean down in on that greasy good groove thing and, in the words of the great T-Model Ford "Let it all hang in!" Lemhouse follows that with Paper Sack, a lament that ol' Tom Waits would dig. Lowly swangin' on the dirty money and peppered with accordion, banjo, and brushed drums torn up with sweet little guitar solos that Chris Issac could only pray for. I'm Worried is a tight sad country blues with living room harmonies. A banjo plus acoustic guitar piece that, like the previous song lays nicely textured `tho this with the sweet wash of a low flute and cello that combines brilliantly with Mr. Lemhouse's delicious rural city picking. It may be just the anthem you need. Leroy Feller's blues gallops down that hard lonesome road called women. "Nothing on this earth is promised. "No guarantees no reason why, you don't get nuthin' for your trouble, but all the angels sing about you when you die". It's a damn shame John Cash never got the chance to cover it. Never Me is a more traditional country blues made well done by Lemhouse's dark `shine and oj voice with banjo that ol' Dock Boggs or Charlie Poole would have appreciated. Several tracks on Lemhouse's second timer have an undeniably sexy groove-on but none more so than his reworked traditional Cluck Old Hen which carries enough draggin' it in the dirt swagger within its "When the Levee Breaks" steel-toed boot stomp to replant the southern Mississippi delta. Twice. Lemhouse and his band with Scott Bomar on bass and Paul Buchignan on drums and such know how to run that steamin' Memphis hot chicken down. Salem is a haunting melancholy song that sings of the miserable dreariness of autumn and winter in that Oregon capital city. Lines like "Six months to daylight in this town" and "I'm as cold as rock in the shade" sure as Lemhouse's acoustic and lap steel and Amy Severin's lonesome cello bring the bone rattling chill right off that ol' Columbia river. The Unofficial Ballad of Story Musgrave with Mr. Lemhouse on lap steel and acoustic backed by Charles Norman on occasional percussion is not just another song to remind you that there can never be enough country songs about wanting to be an astronaut. This track is followed by The Queen of Easy Street which in a perfect world would be a bigass hit single and would do for Lemhouse what similar odd tracks have done for the likes of your Counting Crows or your Wallflowers. But this ain't no damn perfect world and thank the stars Brother Lemhouse knows it. So after the lovely track 11 "Hazy" which would almost fit nicely on a Nick Drake LP comes You're a (...). A full on country rocker that oughta be the world's hottest download and be boomin' from trunks and ipods all life long. It's the new Take This Job and Shove It. It's your new song to play each day as you light that delicious first smoke after work. It's the song to play as you pull into the lot of your next crap job. It's a song Toby Keith wouldn't the okie (...) to cover. It's the theme song for every damned one of us that actually has to work at work. With this album Mark Lemhouse joins a rare group of fine artists like Drive By Truckers, Black Diamond Heavies, Chris Knight, Tarbox Ramblers and others working American music today that's as classic and timeless as it is of the Now. It's soulful, haunted, strong and smart music that is being heard by far too few people and that's a damn shame. The Great American Yard Sale ranks somewhere in my top three for album of the year.

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