Ah, those were the days: beer-drinking Brits smitten with US country-rock and proto-Americana, co-habiting in cottages and caring not a fig for fame or fortune. Trouble is, most pub-rock bands were produced with a similar lack of ambition, so their recordings from the time sound thin and inconsequential.
That said, bassist and de facto frontman Nick Lowe wrote a bunch of beauties with the Brinsleys? the Lennon-ish “I Won’t Make It Without You”, for one?and there are charming covers here of Jim Ford’s “Ju Ju Man”, The Crickets’ “Don’t Ever Change” and even Leroy Sibbles’ ska classic, “Hypocrite”.
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