There aren't many CDs whose producers are credited on the front cover, but the producer credit on the cover of Western Electric, the group's self-titled debut album, serves to alert the potential buyer to the presence of
Sid Griffin, former leader of
the Long Ryders and biographer of
Gram Parsons. Griffin isn't only the producer of Western Electric, though; he is the group's frontman, and his background serves as a clue to the record's sound. Predictably, we are in the austere country-rock territory of Parsons and
the Long Ryders, with songs dominated by pedal steel guitar, autoharp, and mandolin. Such instruments often make for lively listening, but much of Western Electric is slow and ponderous. "Recorded over a long period of time," says a sleeve note, and the album feels like it took a long time, if only because the songs often go on and on to the point of becoming trance-like. "Emily in Ginger" is close to eight minutes long and "Whirlwind" over seven. Griffin and his cohorts seem to be evolving a new country-rock sound that evokes the long, empty stretches of the West in its lonely expanse. Or maybe it's that, when you produce your own record for yourself, you can do what you like. (Issued on a British label in 1999, the album was released in the U.S. on March 21, 2000, by Gadfly.) Fans of
the Byrds will be cheered by the inclusion of a previously unrecorded song by Gene Clark ("Straight from the Heart") and the ringing 12-string guitar passages. But they should be prepared for the album's deliberate pacing and solemnity. ~ William Ruhlmann