Reverend Glasseye And His Wooden Legs

Black River Falls
by Brian Varney

The booklet design consciously evokes the look of releases by Yazoo and the like, and the ambience of the thing brings to mind a drunken escapade in a turn-of-the-century Irish saloon, but there’s too much obvious affection for Tom Waits and The Pogues for anyone to mistake this for lost vintage recordings.

The should-be-more-chaotic-than-it-is band includes such wide-ranging instruments as organ, violin, horns, clarinet, dobro, and steel guitar, but surprisingly, nothing really sticks out as obviously superfluous. Say what you will about this style of music (cuz really, there’s no in-between with this stuff, you either love it or you don’t), but Reverend Glasseye And His Wooden Legs have obviously practiced and done a lot of work figuring out what works and what doesn’t. I don’t know what the fuck any of the songs are about; as if such shit matters in the face of such joyous, drunken gallivanting. This isn’t something you can play every day (if it is, you must have a REALLY interesting life), but I can think of times when this would be the best thing ever. Play this at the karaoke bar on a particularly rowdy night and you’re in for a legendary time.
(www.reverendglasseye.com)