Mississippi Live & the Dirty Dirty “Way Down Here”

(Independent, 2010)

The Dirty South via the cold cold North.

• Take a mild mannered architect from Mississippi, relocate him in Vancouver and team him up with a bunch of Canadian alt country pros and, hey presto, a funky little slice of delta tinged rocking songs.

• Connely Farr is that architect, born in Bolton Mississippi he moved to Vancouver in 2008 and released an album of semi acoustic songs called Mississippi Live in mid 2010. Weeks later he was back in the studio with Jay B. Johnson, drums, Jon Wood, bass, piano, organ and Ben Yardley on guitar. Together they deliver a dirty muddy rock sound that is as sludgy as the fabled delta he hails from with obvious nods to the likes of the drive by truckers and Neil Young in Southern Man mode. While there is nothing here to rival the heights achieved by these acts the band have a brave stab at it and there are moments when the curling guitar of Yardley and Farr’s hoarse voice almost hit the anthemic button, none more so than on “Stranger” which digs deep into southern rock. The band sound genuinely menacing on “The Devil Lives in the T.V.” which references the infamous line “ it puts the lotion on the skin” from Silence of the Lambs and is as gutbucket as it comes. Great stuff! While there are quieter, folkier elements, the pleasant country lope of “Butterfly,” the skeletal “Banjo Song “and the Steve Earle influenced “Cold” the album finishes with the ballsy epic “Wooden Nickels.“ With a huge guitar sound (think Neil circa Zuma) and throbbing organ it’s a very satisfying end to a very satisfying album.