Pinebox Serenade: News

Saturday 3-14 J&J’S NX35

PINEBOX SERENADE
THE HUDSONS
THE AM RAMBLERS
DAN MONTGOMERY


Starts at 8

We are in the rehearsal stage of the what will become our new album, we have around 11 to 13 songs that we will be working with. Hopefully recording will start in the next couple of months with the GREAT Brent Best doing the honors as he has on our first two albums. We promise this one won't take two years to get out!

"Let the River Take Them Home" is the second long-player from Texas septet Pinebox Serenade. Fans of alt-country should probably own this already. If they don't they should pick it up right now.

'Serenade mix indie rock (provided you consider a style that can trace its roots back to The Band indie) with real bluegrass/roots music. Overall they remind me of early (and *very* late, think "Rainy Day Music" era) Jayhawks. But only if the Jayhawks had truly immersed themselves into americana instead of just sitting at the shores of roots music.

All of the elements of good roots music are here: instrumentation (guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, accordion), arrangement (clever but not pointlessly complex), themes (alcohol, god, love, death). There is a somber (occasionally morbid) view-point here that typifies contemporary gothic-americana/blackgrass music. I enjoy this but I was raised on 1940s & 50s country music (which fell into two camps: good time dance music and white/dark blues). As such where others hear Leonard Cohen or the Pogues I hear Hank Williams. And that couldn't be a better thing.

True the vocals are gruffer than the old country greats, think Mark Lanegan with bits of Eddie Vedder. But not only does the style work perfectly for the music it's acts as a nice sign post that this isn't the bland, safe contemporary pop music that's been masquerading as country music.

When it comes to the songs my personal preferences lead me prefer the circus swirl of "Darkness Falls" and the rough wildness of "The Lash". Though "Bottle and Rusty Blade", "Sons of Soil" and "Witch on the Mountain" all hold their own.

PS: I LOVE this album cover.

Pinebox Serenade are seven Texans who are somehow connected to Devil's Ruin Records, a musical label operating in Leo, Indiana. I think there's an underground railroad for wayward musicians, but my sources haven't been able to bring me any concrete proof. Yet. Anyway, Pinebox are showering the world with love in their second full-length album, Let The River Take Them Home, hereafter referred to as LTRTTH, or LeatherTooth for short. Contained within the microscopic pits of the silvery platter are 12 old-timey songs that are dark and organic. "Gothic Americana" they call it.



To make their own special "Gothic Americana" moonshine Pinebox Serenade start with traditional folk instruments like an acoustic guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, accordion, lap-steel and ciddle (a cello in the field-roughened hands of a folk musician). Then they play original mountain music and bluegrassy dirges and smoky campfire songs, music that is formed from the dirt of despair, songs of love and rejection, life and death, daily pleasures and hourly pains.

The songs are surprisingly sophisticated without betraying their rural origins. The instrumental "Sons of Soil" begins with a mournful accordion that weeps into a dark lamentation that will leave a hollow ache in your chest. "The Plains" is hypnotic shoegazer folk full of eerie sounds and droning woodwinds and is driven painfully home by a perfect and passionate performance. If it's a mandolin solo you want, look no further than "The Faithful", an uncharacteristically upbeat song where the upright bass and fiddle form an unbeatable alliance. "Isabelle" soberly finds that "Midnight is a mask that covers me" leading to the rowdy Celtic romp "The Lash", where angry and aggressive vocals pelt the listener with missives of "Who wants to live to a ripe old age?" I can't help but thinking that our own Lee Miles would enjoy this band.

Folks, you just don't get music like that created by Pinebox Serenade from the radio. You can't churn it out according to a computer-generated formula. No, you've got to live a rough life (or at least read a lot about people living rough lives) and then use your music to work through the pain. But for such a sorrowful album, Let The River Take Them Home, er, LeatherTooth is a joy for the ears and the soul. (Jason Hoffman)

The prospect of hell and the potential for redemption provide the tension for Pinebox Serenade's excellent "Let The River Take Them Home." Call it Gothic-roots-country or Gothic-rock-grass. Touchstones for Pinebox Serenade might be a harrowed Johnny Cash, The Pogues but replace the Irish with American, and Richard Buckner at his most morose. There is a dreamy dark energy to the band's music that presents something pleasant on the surface only to discover that discontent lurks below. Pinebox Serenade take you on a dark, glorious journey. -- Jeff Weiss, Miles of Music (Devil's Ruin)

Use the link below:

Devil's Ruin Records Store

We are very proud to tell you that our second album "Let the River Take Them Home" is finally available for preorder from Devil's Ruin Records!!! You will recieve two bottons for free, plus all preorders have free shipping in the US!!! You can preorder using Paypal if you click on the link below.

CD Release - May 5, 2008

Pinebox Serenade - Let the River Take them Home will be available for the first time at our CD release show on July 12th at Dan's Silverleaf in Denton!!! We will have the band Starhead opening and then the incomparable Brent Best (Slobberbone/The Drams) will play, so it should be a great night.