The Longest Meow
Label: Blood Shot
Length: LP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Longest Meow, The
The great tagline is that it’s ’11 tracks recorded in 11 hours by 11 people.â?� The beauty of the thing is that from start to finish it kicks and purrs in all the right spots. After a few convoluted starts with his band (the unimaginatively titled Bare Jr.), the son of legendary Nashville country singer Bobby Bare figured out that if one wants to make loose and loud records, one had better remain loose and loud. This, his fourth ‘soloâ?� album, was actually more rehearsed than his previous ventures, but was recorded quickly in few takes. Members of My Morning Jacket, Clem Snide and Lambchop comprise the Young Criminals Starvation League; the collective knows how to enliven alt-country tropes, by grafting them atop Bare’s sick-hick delivery. The result gloriously evokes a sort of Dixie-fried Westerberg vibe (as on the original ‘Stop Cryingâ?�), as well as being capable of slowing the Pixies’ ‘Where Is My Mindâ?� into a night-crawling lament.
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2006.