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Scott Biram is perhaps Austin’s best contribution to the new breed of hell-raisin’, pscyhopathic redneck music purveyed by the likes of Hank III. On Graveyard Shift, his second album on Bloodshot Records, Biram continues to write the soundtrack for your roadtrip to Hell and Salvation. With one foot stompin’ out time and his eyes rolled back into his head, “the dirty old one man band” brings more songs of truckdrivin’, murder, drinkin’ and sometimes redemption like Leadbelly by way of Stevie Ray and with a heavy metal heart. This is 21st century roots, and if Lomax were wandering the backroads today, Biram would be hailed as a prophet and genius; if there is any justice in the world, he still will be.
Graveyard Shift is dedicated to Biram’s good friend Steev Smith, who was killed last year in a car wreck and, as he notes in the liner notes, “Garage Sales, BBQ joints, and fireworks stands all over the world miss your stench.” On the opening track “Been Down Too Long,” Biram hollers, “I been out in the graveyard / I watched ‘em put my best friend in the ground,” and the album seethes with rage and restlessness, penitence and prayer, and the haunts of livin’ your best and worst in a world of sin and sorrow.
Biram’s songs have always lingered in the murkey space of a drug-addled Saturday night and a guilt-riddled Pentacostal Sunday morning, and his latest is no different. Songs like the rollicking “Only Jesus” are ripped with a pained and possessed beseeching of the holy spirit while still rife with last night’s sin, while tracks like “Plow You Under” try to bury those demons with a furious lashing out at the world in hopeless, hell-bent fury. Sometimes, that personal struggle with the devil and memory is enacted all at once, felt in Biram’s wailing,“It’s times like these that I wish I had some times like those,” on “Long Fingernails.”
When Biram slides into a more country vein, he can channel that lonesome whine of Hank Williams as well as anyone, and his truckdrivin’ songs are still easily among the best written. “Lost Case of Being Found” is also a beautiful heartbreak ditty as perfectly nuanced as Townes Van Zandt and Gram Parsons’ best. These songs shouldn’t be lost behind the heavier and more firebranded tunes like “Graveyard Shift,” the gritty-metal/blues of “Work,” or the absolutely hardcore invocation of Biram’s “Church of The Ultimate Fanaticism” on “Church Babies.”
But the bottom line for Biram is still a grievous celebration of both the highs and lows of our fallen lives, and, as the cover of the album says: “This record sounds best when turned up LOUD!” Amen to that.
Mp3’s from Graveyard Shift
Been Down Too Long
Website:
www.scottbiram.com
