The Beau Roland Band
Northern Hospitality
© 2006 The Beau Roland Band (747728949623)
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In the spirit of Neil Young, the essence of Woody Guthrie and the embodiment of Weezer, each song is effortlessly catchy and gut-wrenching at the same time... Roots/Americana with a pop shine.
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* Review of Northern Hospitality, by SlackerCountry.com *
At first glance, it would be easy to dismiss The Beau Roland Band as just another folky acoustic bar band. My first exposure to them was listening online to some recordings from a live Willie Nelson Tribute where they played the classic Willie album “Red Headed Stranger” in its entirety. That alone should have been a clue that these guys are, well, a little different.
Different is the best way to describe them: a Boston band led by a Southerner, named after their frontman’s alter-ego and listing among their influences both Earnest Tubb and the Flaming Lips. Not your everyday Americana outfit.
They’ve just put out their second self–released album, “Northern Hospitality” and on closer listen you’ll find there’s a whole lot more going on here than just a laid back good time. It’s full of funny/sad observations on doomed love, life on the road, life in a small town, getting ahead, falling behind, coming, going, drinking, chasing dreams and even the death of the American ideal.
The crisp, loose, low-fi production hits the perfect balance of rollicky country, folk influenced indie pop, jazz, and swing. The guitars that drive much of the record both jangle and twang in equal measure. While the sound is unique and pretty much theirs alone, you can catch smatterings of varied influences: Uncle Tupleo, Pure Prairie League, The Beatles, Dylan, and 70s pop songs by the likes of Steven Bishop, Maria Muldaur, Loudon Wainwright and Dr Hook all come to mind.
Lead singer, songwriter, guitarist Phillip Ouellette sings these catchy little songs in an unassuming manner that belies the depth of his writing. His voice never stretches too far or hits a false note. He’s backed up very capably by bandmates Tyler Pollard on bass and vocals, Rick Dillon on guitar and mandolin, and drummer Jeremy Eagle. Together they seem to click very nicely.
My two favorite cuts are the back to back tracks, "Where Delilah Lay" - a fun little song about killing a cheating lover and "229 Years" - an epitaph to what our great nation once stood for. In that song, which has a nice Dixieland brass treatment, Ouellette manages to capture in just over four minutes what Neil Young took an entire album to say.
It’s that succinct, under-the-radar quality that makes this record so surprising and surprisingly listenable. This is an album that’s as much fun to listen to as it sounds like it was to make.
-jitter
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" The lead singer's voice is captivating, melodic, and powerful. In the spirit of Neil Young, the essence of Woody Guthrie and the embodiment of Weezer, each song is effortlessly catchy and gut-wrenching at the same time."
- Kier Byrnes, What's Up Magazine
"There is music we leave on in the background of our lives and then there is the music that calls out for us to stop. To sit down. To put a fist to our mouths and focus inward, back to the memory or the fantasy of a time that seemed to stretch out forever. The sound of the Boston-based, non-eponymous Beau Roland Band is firmly entrenched in the latter category, forcing us not only to look back at the road we've traveled, but to stare down the road ahead."
- Christa Weber, Wicked Hawt Magazine
"With homey acoustic ballads that waltz and sway, balanced against dragging indie pop and lo-fi alt. folk, The Road To Wichita evokes both feelings of ennui and hope."
- Miles of Music
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BRB's second album kicks it up a notch
author: Betty WiderskiNorthern Hospitality feels like singer/songwriter Phillip Ouellette has been hopping buses and trains, writing a song for each stop on the journey as he observes his fellow passengers. From the first track about someone caught under the spell of alcohol, to the man who finds his watch still on Chicago time as the guitar and drums echo the rhythm of the rails, the woman who turns her back on St. Louis, the double-crossed lover of Delilah, and the fellow who pisses off his girlfriend so she won't dance with him, all of Ouellette's songs articulately tell stories of the people you'll find next to you in everyday life. The tempos for the most part are more upbeat than on their first album, though still with a sense of nostalgia for his roots. Recorded on analog tape, the retro effect is clean and suited to the country/pop sensibility of the album.