The new record from The Duke & The King may not be a full fledged concept album but it might as well be. The album is so full of songs about lies, recriminations, bad choices, lost loves, regrets and the joys and horrors of a misspent youth that you get the picture pretty quickly. There’s a sad story attached to the making of the record, but since I promptly threw the bio sheet away and would rather not have that influence my listening anyway you’ll have to search that out for yourself. Needless to say the record is a loosely tied together both thematically and musically.

“Union Street” may have the thumpingest bass and the most obnoxious heavy drum beat (Simon Felice was the drummer in The Felice Brothers, after all) but it also is the song on the record that best shows his promise as a writer who can juxtapose images of hopelessness with a glimmer of hope (if you wonder in which song the band proves it can write a hit check out “If You Ever Get Famous” and if you are curious if the band can write a song that isn’t completely melancholy check out the wonderful “Summer Morning Rain”).

Union Street

“The Morning I Get To Hell” (Kitchen Rehearsal)

“The Devil Is Real” (Kitchen Rehearsal)

Can you call The Resentments a supergroup when the bulk of the population doesn’t know of a single soul in the band? In the world of Americana roots music you can. Whether these guys are household names or not, the band’s musical pedigree (besides being made up of a bunch of mutts) is very high. Comprised of “Scrappy” Jud Newcomb, Stephen Bruton, John Dee Graham, Bruce Hughes and John Chipman, this band can seem a little schizophrenic on record depending on who is singing and the style of song being played but their live show is renowned in Austin. At one point culminating in their even being named the best bar band in America.

“What Love Can Do” is the Graham Parker, Elvis Costello and Richard Thompson inspired “pop” single replete with squeezebox and mandolin. Buy the new record Roselight here.

What Love Can Do