Red Pine Timber Co. : Sorry For The Good Times

Red Pine Timber Co.

Sorry For The Good Times

Goldrush Records

Don’t try to categorise this band as it’s a slippery slope and I ended at the foot of it.  I was quite sure they were Stateside, and with a terrific horn section, maybe Memphis or Philadelphia.  I was wrong on all accounts.  This 8-piece throng is from Perth, Central Scotland.

Sorry For The Good Times showcases a dazzling array of musical styles with lyrics of grit “The Duke” might have slid off his horse to hear about.  Katie Whittaker in the country ballad Put Down The Bottle, throws down a gauntlet to established Country music stars.  Soulful sax and mournful trumpet hit hard but one expletive and the line, “cause you’re drinking from the Devil’s cup”, hits even harder.

First single, Hollow Tree opens with fiddle, pedal steel and acoustic guitar and sounds not unlike Bad Company, with the vocals of song writer for the whole album, Gavin Munro.  The horn section stakes its claim before handing over in turn to mandolin and with the bass and drums, Southern Rock doesn’t get much better.

Opener, If You Want To is pure rock, Talking In The Snow is pure Americana.  Cutting You Loose could have come from the film Walk The Line and Katie’s last line “Sorry for the good times, I ain’t making no excuse” is out of the ball park.  It’s Gavin’s turn on Bar Stool, a lament in which he “travels light with a heavy heart…done things that weren’t smart”.  Doleful trombone emphasises that “days go by..”.  Get Right With You begins slowly but ends like an impassioned spiritual hymn, “I need shelter from my sins, and Lord I’ve got a few” Gavin sings. Don’t we all?

NE