This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Is it just me, or has anybody else noticed that some of the best American country music — and by that I don’t mean guys named Ty with big hats; I mean real blood-and-guts, two-fisted, hard-drinking country music — is coming out of the U.K.?
Just check out Jon Langford and any of his umpteen bands (Mekons, Waco Brothers, Skull Orchard, Pine Valley Cosmonauts) if you don’t believe me. And while you’re at it, check out this barn-burner from his Mekons cohort, accordionist Rico Bell. Rico (really Eric Bellis) grew up by the titlular English river, but his sound is right from the U.S.A. — the acoustic passion and sandpaper voice of ’80s Bruce Springsteen, the Cajun accordion of the Jolie Blon, the nasal whine of Bob Dylan. Like Langford the Wacos, it’s more American than most real American music these days.
