Fans of a certain kind of orphaned Americana are likely to fall on Post To Wire like apostles on The Grail. By which I mean anyone who’s been touched where it hurts by American Music Club, The Replacements, Uncle Tuoelo, Ryan Adams, Dave Alvin or Gram Parsons will soon be entirely enthralled with this dark and mesmerising masterpiece. Who are Richmond Fontaine? I was just about to ask the same question.
Turns out they’ve been going, to my great surprise, for nigh on a decade, and Post To Wire is their fifth album. They were formed in 1994 when songwriter Willy Vlautin quit his native Reno, where not a lot that was good happened to him, and moved from Nevada to Portland, Oregon, where things started to look up after hemet Dave Harding, a local bass player who shared Willy’s enthusiasm for H