Writing from an ocean away, I always find it interesting when the subject of Americana as a genre comes up. The UK is awash with bands describing themselves in such terms, though they are essentially folk bands who have put on a plaid shirt, littered their songs with words like “whiskey,” “highway,” and “lonesome,” and just jumped on a commercial bandwagon. I always think of Americana as something that captures the spirit of American life, a soundtrack to that great nation. I also believe that rather than trying to describe it, you just know it when you hear it. Given those two criteria, Panic Tax, the new one from Ethan William Bowers, is Americana, or at least my idea of what it should sound like.
But of course, it isn’t ever as simple as that. Sure, “Careful Little Game” has the required country-esque twangs and drifting pedal steel guitars, but it also has a cool rock energy. If it does tip its hat to an alt-country (another label that you probably couldn’t get two people to agree on a definition) sound, it is to earlier bands such as Ryan Adams’’s formative sonic vehicle Whiskeytown or the Wilco forerunner Uncle Tupelo rather than the Music City glitz and traditions.
Similarly, in songs like “Ordinary People,” you can hear more than an echo of Flying Burrito Brothers eglorious ponymous album, country going cosmic and meeting that West Coast haze and jangle coming the other way. “All Things End” has a Tom Petty vibe, and the title track, which rounds off this small but perfectly formed collection, sounds like nothing more than Ethan William Bowers doing what he does best: marrying all manner of genres and moulding, mixing, and merging them to his own will.
This is the first release that has seen Bowers leading The Painted Strangers, a collective of the excellent and good which includes Cale Gerst (Big Money & The Spare Change, Piques), Jacob Gutzwiller (Best Sleep), Jonah Leatherman, and Mitch Fraizer (Squirrel Cage, Piques, and more) and hopefully this is a partnership that will run and run.
Four fantastic tracks, one great band, and a gifted songwriter that you really need to be keeping an eye on. After all, with an EP this great, who knows what he will be doing this time next year, or five, ten, twenty years from now. Stay tuned, folks!
Website
Facebook
Spotify
Bandcamp
Instagram
