SUPERSUCKERS “Holdin’ The Bag” review (by Diona)

SUPERSUCKERS “Holdin’ The Bag”
Steamhammer / SPV

The story of the band “The Supersuckers” is quite typical for the American bands. In the late 80s five high-school friends (Eddie Spaghetti, Ron Heathman, Dan “Thunder” Bolton, Dancing Eagle and Eric Martin) formed a band and started to play punk-rock (which is also quite common). However, the 1997th album under the self-speaking title Must’ve Been High has literally blown up the world of country music. Since that time, the band has not released any pure-country album. Right until this year.

The first notable thing about this record is the incredible coherence of the melodies and their wide emotional range. The list of just 11 songs and 2 bonus-tracks represents compositions, which are suitable for camp fire or bar-singing, together with touching ballads. It is impossible to say, that the album is of pure country style, as the influence of Waylon Jennings can be certainly felt. While some guitar riffs are worth for Brian Setzer. Moreover, there exists a light and almost unnoticeable trace of punk-rock.

A distinct complement should be given to the vocals of Eddie Spaghetti (by the way, he is also the bass-guitarist) as his pleasant voice is weaved harmonically into the music and supplements perfectly the instruments’ singing. By the way, among the others, banjo and keyboards can be found, which actually is not surprising for the country music. The surprising fact is that traditional piano is sometimes replaced by a specific sound of synthesizer. Together with the voice of Spaghetti, the album gives an opportunity to hear the vocals of folk singer Hayes Carll and young and magnificent country diva Lydia Loveless. A composition featuring Carll “This Life With You” is jiving and sarcastic, while the duet with Lydia called “I Can’t Cry” represents a beautiful ballad, which will certainly be loved by anyone whose heart had once been broken.

To tell the truth, despite the overall joy and energy of the album, the lyrics is sometimes exceedingly meaningful and clever. These profound motives might have been explained by the sad news about Spaghetti, who has been diagnosed stage-3 throat cancer past June. However, the disease was spotted right after the album was finished. Hopefully, this fact will not prevent fans to turn the opening song “Holdin’ The Bag” into the eternal hit. In the meantime, the band had to cancel its European tour due to the Eddie’s illness.

Putting all together, album “Holding The Bag” by the American band “The Supersuckers”, which is to be released in Europe on January 29^th, will leave no indifferent listeners. Haters gonna hate with pleasure. Nevertheless, the great musical variety and skillful performing will certainly satisfy not only the country-lovers, but the rock-fans as well.

(c) Diona