Availability: Unlimited
JB Nelson & the Chainsaws US debut The Black Horse Saloon teams the ever resourceful JB Nelson with a backing band. The result is a tamer and more traditional approach to music than when JB goes at it alone as on his US debut Weeping Willows. The Chainsaws add a touch of sensitivity to the demonic take Nelson has on so many of his songs. Though still thorougly dark and menacing, The Black Horse Salooon adds a light at the end of the tunnel, one that we aren't sure JB can see.
Tracklisting:
1. Watch Out for the Devil
2. I'm Really Missing You
3. Murder Hole on Brandy Lane
4. You and the Devil and Me
5. Black Horse Saloon
6. Ghost of Fairy Rock
7. Fed Up and Going
8. The Stranger
9. Afternoon Blues
10. Love Song
Review from crookedrain.org.uk
The Black Horse Saloon (JB Nelson & The Chainsaws)
On his second release JB switches mayhem for mischief and forges a demented circus sound with his band, The Chainsaws. Mother Chainsaw on melodica and The Black Mclean on organ flesh out the sound and can help lift Nelson from the depths of his mind, briefly at least. Some tunes even sound happy, but the lyrical undertones remain dark. Always dark. The recording is deliberatley lo-fi and for the most part works a treat, helping to set the scene for some well crafted songs. We get another reference to southwest Scotland with Ailsa Craig being the centre piece of ‘Ghost of Fairy Rock’, a disquietingsea shanty told from the point of a ghost, and in ‘I’m really missing you’ JB is feeling homesick ‘I’m catching the first train home, back to the old southwest / I’m leavin this city, believe me i know whats best’ The vaudeville vibe hits fine and true, especially on ‘The Black Horse Saloon’ and ‘The Stranger’ The stuttering chimes of a music box open the title track and Nelson’s pleasing lilt weaves a tale of a strange and fearsome whiskey drinker at the Saloon. No doubt a few watering holes in Girvan provided his inspiration! But the Chainsaws never sounded better than on ‘The Stranger’, the best track of this great album. Melodica and organ combine in grotesque disharmony while JB growls and yodels his cautionary lament ‘Hide in your trailer or saloon, I’ve seen him your, names on his list too..watch out a new strangers in town’ It really is a brilliant tune, and the best on a good album. The instrumentation and songwriting show off what a spooky, tormented soul JB Nelson is. I mean that in the nicest possible way, of course,and I hope he’ll stick around for a while yet.