A twang of guitar, a crash of cymbals and a deep baritone that mixes Cash and Cave in equal measure to intone the opening couplet “I tried to bury the blood of my lord, six feet under the Tennessee gorge”. From the opening of first track ‘Long Ago’ you know where you are with Auld Lang Syne. Yes, welcome to Marlboro Country, welcome to the land of gothic alt-country. On ‘Midnight Folly’ their debut album, the six-piece from New York state deliver a grizzled, rough-hewn, gutsy take on the genre. It’s not just the sound that reinforces this; so do the song titles (‘Greasy Horse’, ‘Autumn’s Epitaph’, ‘Four Rivers’) and the lyrical imagery (weeping willows, drowning and gallows, death and bones). If the first 2 or 3 songs tread this well-worn path a little too reverentially, some of the later ones do suggest a slightly wider stylistic palette, mixing alt-rock, Americana and a touch of country soul into the Southern Gothic mix.

After that growling seven minute opener (none of the nine songs are shorter than five and a half minutes – they clearly take their time in this part of the world) second track ‘Rusty Prayer’ starts off as quiet and mysterious as a Palace Brothers song before filling out to the folk orchestra sound of Willard Grant Conspiracy on ‘Regard The End’ – all mournful harmonica, solemn funeral-march drums, yearning pedal steel. So it continues: ‘Greasy Horse’ starts with the spacious percussive crawl of Red Red Meat before concluding with spectral flutes and penny whistles. ‘Four Rivers’ is a wheezy, warped old-time gospel lament; ‘Where My Fortune Lies’ a banjo-led, mid-tempo singalong with massed backing vocal choir. Other songs push gently in different directions; ‘My First Soul’ is a more personal rumination, all Wilco-esque nostalgia and warmth; ‘Red Feather’ is a slow, sedated more traditional slice of Americana with three-part harmonies and lush arrangements of brushed drums and pedal steel.

Although lovingly played, produced and presented (and packaged too; the somber beauty of wood-cut artwork from Jose Delhart is worthy of mention) it is difficult to see at first what Auld Lang Syne adds to this oft-mined musical seam. What I tend to hear is the clichés of the genre, not the personality of the band and having two lead vocalists somehow adds to this lack of recognizable personality. ‘Midnight Folly’, although complex, dark and epic, can also feel quite anonymous whilst mimicking other artists (look at all the ones name-checked above). There are a few moments when some personality and some originality comes through to grab your attention like the pained wavering vocal on the chorus on ‘Why We Cry’ or the emphatic, anthemic finale of ‘Autumn's Epitaph’, complete with sleigh bells to the fore and chanted chorus. It’s these moments that Auld Lang Syne need to built on to claim a sound that is truly their own, not simply borrowed clothes.

A decent album that’s worth checking out if you a fan of the genre, but I’m looking forward to hearing how the band sound a little further on along the dusty road.

Tracks:
1 Long Ago
2 Rusty Prayer
3 Why We Cry
4 Greasy Horse
5 My First Soul
6 Four Rivers
7 Where My Fortune Lies
8 Red Feather
9 Autumn's Epitaph