Altsounds - Mel Keith and the Strombachs

Listening to Mel Keith and the Strombachs opening track - 'Is Anyone Here' - I can see why the promo self titled 8-track CD I've been sent has a sticker that says 'for fans of Lucinda Williams, Sheryl Crow and Kathleen Edwards' - much as I resent being put into a box like that. It's got a bit of a summery Sheryl feel to it, but the voice whilst similar is also totally totally different. There's a sparseness in Mel Keith's vocal phrasing, gaps that work to emphasise above the jangly country-rock guitar.

'Don't Walk Away' has got a breathy catch on the voice, just like when engineers first started playing with backwards snare sounds. That's got me intrigued, that little bit of experiment. Also, this track, the hook is really strong and I think I've heard it before. I know I haven't but my mind thinks it has. I love the way Mel Keith croaks a bit towards the end.

'Amazing' opens with strummy, jangly country-rock guitar and is very listenable due entirely to Mel Keith's voice. She has got the sort of East Coast / Canadian inflection that's charming to Northern British blokes who write CD reviews. It makes me look on the CD cover for some info and I find it's recorded in Moncton, New Brunswick. Is that where they are from? What's a Strombach? Apart from a 19th century zither playing child-murderer? Oooh, quick, drop the doo-wop backing vocal. At this point I could quite get into the whole feel of the record.

'Just Like Kathleen' jumps right in and Mel's accent twangs through nicely enough to tell of a bad girl called Kathleen who likes to sink a few beers while the cable TV plays on. I dunno but this all felt a trifle snobby. We're all a bit more grown up than that, aren't we dears? And is there a bit of a theme about bad girls as anti-heroes?

'You shine' starts off again with just the voice and folk guitar. It's all a tiny bit self-help about how even if you're messed up, don't you know how much you shine? It's almost embarrassingly earnest like Alanis Morissette, and strings out the phrases a bit like Alanis Morissette would but luckily it just about redeems itself. In fact by the end I almost love it.

Then there's an unlisted eighth track that GraceNote 'identifies' (if you can call it that) as 'Untitled' - is that the name of the track or does it really not have a name? Synthesizers that I can only call zany appear and I thought I'd slipped onto Passion Pit for just a second, before the clapping percussion and Mel Keith's voice kicks in followed by the ever present guitars. Can you have power chords right alongside keyboards? That really should belong to Stevie Wonder or Steely Dan. Well it seems that you can now and this is glorious. This track is a remixed by 'rae' and it's a relief to be out from the country rock sound of the rest of the album. Bizarre though putting it here when the rest of the record is so much of a specific type. It's the final track and I'm hooked. I don't care if this music is made by the PCD or Norwegian trolls, this album ain't going back.

So, yes, Mel Keith is from Moncton, New Brunswick. That's relevant because I'm a big follower of Canadian music but know next to nothing about stuff coming out of the Maritimes. She's played in the UK at Wakestock of all places, but is still hammering out loads of gigs in Eastern Canada. If Mel Keith sticks with the country-rock guitar, that's where she will stay and be happy and worthy to boot. If she does more like that last track, look out.