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Band chemistry is a difficult thing to define and even more difficult to foster. Sometimes it comes together naturally, as with Austin’s unlikely quartet of songwriters Band of Heathens. Sometimes it comes together completely improbably – Interpol (for better or worse) comes most readily to mind. And sometimes it simply has to be worked out over time. With string bands, that chemistry is perhaps even more important, dependent as the genre typically is on close harmonies and the tight interplay of instruments, as opposed to the usual rock show which can afford a certain amount of leeway in the sloppiness. The Weary Boys were a band that seemed to have that natural chemistry from the start. Their eponymous debut in 2001, through a large helping of traditionals and covers interspersed with only a few original tunes, presented a band comfortable enough to impressively push limits while still proving an aptitude for the heritage they were brilliantly ransacking. There was a distinctive sound to the group that only grew over time, and as former lead writer Mario Matteoli honed his songwriting, so too did the band brand his songs with an appropriate fire or honky tonk heartache that could rise and fall with an almost effortless aplomb.
With Matteoli leaving the band to pursue his solo career last year, however, it seems that both he and the Weary Boys have struggled to find a new chemistry. Perhaps it’s not surprising that Coalinga was created by the group already with the thought that it would be their final output. Like Matteoli’s 2006 effort, Hard Luck Hitting, which was a capable enough offering but certainly lackluster given the expectations cultivated from his Weary days, Coalinga also fails to stand out or present anything necessarily unique, especially in the context of the group’s previous five albums.
Bringing in the young, and exceptionally talented, banjo licker Matt Downing was a solid move for the band. Downing doesn’t fill the hole left by Matteoli (nor does that seem to be the goal in adding him), but he does offer the group a new texture that serves them well. Like the other players, Downing is an excellent musician and his talent shines through on the album. But there is also a clear under-development of cohesion in the quintet brought about by the banjo’s prominence. Both the banjo and fiddle (from bow-shredder Brian Salvi) seem to vie for a competing emphasis in the songs that never quite comes together, with the possible exception of the ending of “Stranger.”
Coalinga also only offers two new Weary Boys songs, the instrumental title track that opens and closer “The Last Stand of El Sordo,” which seems to mark itself as a knowing final sendoff in the guise of a Western showdown, tumbleweeds blown by the climactic horns soaring towards high noon. The rest of the album falls back completely on traditionals. Unlike the largely cover setlist of Holy Ghost Power, however, these remakes are rather generic, even as songs like “Sweet Blue Eyed Darlin’” or “Little Girl of Mine from Tennessee” offer a fun romp. But the harmonies on “Jack of Diamonds” fall flat, and “Darlin’ Corey” and “Little Birdie” attempt to play between the restrained, nasal lackadaisicalness of Appalachian vocals and a raucous impulse that ultimate fails to develop either.
With time this lineup could have possibly congealed into something special, especially given the musical talent that still pervades Coalinga. But the Weary Boys’ final album brings them back to a point of beginning again, and the band really only seems halfheartedly interested in trying to re-meld their skills and push their, and the genre’s, limits. Which might alright, because given the whole, the Weary Boys have already given us plenty.
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www.thewearyboys.com
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