The Gourds

Austin, TX's The Gourds have never been much on sentiment. Since the band started defining Gourds Music, as it has come to be known, with Dem's Good Beeble in 1997 and the quirky Stadium Blitzer in 1998, they have chugged through America fueled by music and a near-pathological need for a good time. And while songwriters Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith have written the most dense, reference-laden country songs of the last 10 years and almost single-handedly made a place for deep thought in a genre of "Honky Tonk Badonkadonks" they have, for the most part, shied away from the tear-in-my-beer ballads that made country music a commercial powerhouse over the last 50 years.

OFFICIAL SITE  ::  MYSPACE  ::  FACEBOOK  ::  TWITTER  ::  BLOG

You would think that after multiple albums and seventeen years of touring coast-to-coast and across the pond, the Gourds would have it all down. Well, they do: they project the alt/indie/roots sensibilities of their hometown, Austin, Texas, better than any music group going. They are also the quirkiest bunch of guys you’ll ever meet. Playing 150 gigs a year while helping raise 12 offspring among them will do that to a band. But from the first notes of “I Want It So Bad,” it’s clear this is a whole ‘nother Gourds on Old Mad Joy. Their previous recordings were all done on the fly, close to home, assembled down and dirty. “We were DIY all the way,” explained bassist and co-composer Jimmy Smith. This one was done in Woodstock, NY at The Barn, a.k.a Levon Helm Studios, the timber-framed recording facility attached to the home of Levon Helm.

Think of Old Mad Joy as beyond Gourdian. The basics were already in place: Claude Bernard’s accordion and keyboards bring on the caustic boogie and blown out bellows. Kevin Russell’s original brand of gospel spirituals contrast with Jimmy Smith’s dark-and-twisted imagery that suggests whistling while walking down a dark alley.  Max Johnston’s multiple-instrumental arsenal including banjo, rubboard, mandolin, and fiddle keeps the sound honest. Keith Langford’s drumming puts the whole train into locomotion. Because it’s the Gourds, bizarre imagery is sprinkled throughout, with references to Byzantine topple, tectonic plates and other weirdness. Russell and Smith share the vocal leads, as usual, with Bernard and Johnston occasionally chiming in. But everyone sings throughout the album, including drummer Langford, transforming a full-throated band into a glorious chorus that happens to drawl. The players are busting with pride over how it all went down. “I love all those records we’ve done up to this point,” Jimmy Smith said. “But this one, we had somebody to expedite our talent.  He got our attention.” “It was like a four point shot,” Keith Langford chimed in. The Gourds went to Woodstock as the great Austin band. They emerged from the experience sounding like the great American band, with Old Mad Joy as their calling card.