Mike Kelly - Wake The DeadEvery few years I have a sudden resurgence and obsession of Americana music. For the last two years, I was mostly underwhelmed, but back in 2007 I made something like a 50-60 song, 2-cd mix of various country, alt. country, folk, roots, and americana music, no artist repeated more than once. That mix still sounds good today, and though I didn't keep 60 albums from that selection, there is no doubt that if you know where to look, take the time to listen to a plethora of artists and bands you've never heard of and do it often, every year is going to reward your little country self with some real standout work.
2010 was a year where it seemed like roots music was dead for quite a while, until I started looking. One thing led to another, one site led to another, lists linked to other lists, and I did my own investigation work and have found many releases from artists I had never heard of before, and some of those releases have become some of my very favorite thing I've heard this year.
Mike Kelly's debut full length "Wake The Dead" won't quite be a top 10 album, but it's quickly becoming one of my most listened to albums of the year and this is due mostly to the way that the songs he has written here find their way lodged into my head very easily. Musically, this album is something like a combination of Drive-By Truckers at their more forlelorn, Gaslight Anthem but less anthemic, Whiskeytown but less honky-tonky, and lots of the more upbeat songs have a structure that really remind me of Butch Walker's work back when he was in Marvelous 3 - but with a country sound. He's taking things from a lot of acts I like, infusing his own personality and story into the words and has managed to create quite an accomplished country album.
I won't say there are no negatives - because there are quite a few. Often times, it seems that Kelly is just playing a role in his music or veering from cliché to cliché as far as alt. country goes. Most songs are about relationships, or a friend and occasionally there is a ridiculous rocker ("Two Kegs in The Swimming Pool" is fun, but should really come from Miranda Lambert, not this dude). Kelly's writing is good and interesting, his phrasing going places that most music doesn't want to, but he has occasional lines that are like "c'mon dude, this isn't you" and songs that are a bit awkward ("When A Boy Loves A Girl" is cute but is kinda weird and striving too much.
I've listened intently, I've listened passively, I've blasted it in my car and I've used it to ignore the office at work, and all of these various situations have revealed different things about this album - that it's not perfect, that maybe I shouldn't really like it or that I should make a bigger deal out of some of the lyrics and clichés, that maybe the gruffness of his voice is a little bit of a put on, that by looking at this guy you would think he's a punk rocker, not a country singer - but this all goes out the window when I find myself just plainly enjoying these songs. It has become a quintessential Americana year for me, and this release has somehow found itself among the best. If you like that Texas sound, you might as well seek it out - it could be your thing. If you hate it, well tough shit because I'm still going to be enjoying it for a while longer.
In Summary: Good americana/alternative country shit. Could have a lot of fans on this board. Some awkward lyric phrasings, some real cliché topics and lines, but the sound is there. This guy could get really good, or he's just gonna be your favorite bar singer
