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Comprising the last recordings by late guitarist Jack Rose, Ragged and Right automatically garners attention from fans of the beloved cult musician. For those of us who haven’t heard his work, though, something more is needed to draw us in. Fortunately that something is there in the songs and performances of D. Charles Speer & the Helix, a roots rock band of what sounds like a high order. Speer (Dave Shuford to his mom) write tunes that evoke several eras at once, like Woody Guthrie, Merle Haggard and Simon Bonney sharing the same body, and his band gracefully frames his narratives with tasteful accompaniment – cf. the moody folk of “The Longer You Wait” and the languid honky-tonk of “Prison Song.” Rose makes his presence felt on lap steel and electric guitar, instead of his usual acoustic, with “Linden Avenue Stomp” as his showcase. The closing version of “In the Pines” rocks the Leadbelly standard into a countrified stomp that sounds as influenced by Green On Red as by tradition. I don’t know how much Ragged and Right will do for Rose’s posthumous reputation, but it should alert discerning listeners to the potential of D. Charles Speer.
