Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Album review: Bury Me in My Boots by The Cadillac Three

The Cadillac Three are Nashville born and raised, yet it’s in the UK where they’ve garnered a large following – to the point where I initially believed they were from the UK and then wondered why the music sounded like nothing I’d heard from there …

So that’s the first clue to their popularity abroad: they’re offering something different. There are familiar elements, certainly – this is swampy, up-tempo country rock, and there are plenty of forebears to draw from. But I hasten to point out that while it has some lyrical elements of Bro Country, it sounds more substantial than a lot of those offerings.

Bury Me in My Boots also has something that can be lacking in country: a big beat that drives the music along. Perhaps that means it’s not strictly country – or perhaps, again, they’re offering something different. What’s for sure is that the album is solidly entertaining from the first track to the fourteenth (and last). And it’s possible to hear in this album what their live potential would be like – they sound barely contained within the production constraints, as if they want to bust out and play to an arena instead of a studio. That’s the next clue to their popularity in the UK, where they tour regularly: they’d be great live.

If acoustic singer-songwriters are your preference, this is not your album. But if you like to know you’re getting a solid album’s worth of songs that you won’t get tired of quickly, that you can drive to, party to, sing along to, this is worth your time.

Bury Me in My Boots is out now from Big Machine.


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