New Music of The Day – CLXXVI : Just How She Died – Tommy Hale and The Magnificent Bastards

Like most musical labels employed by journalists and music tribe devotees, Americana, roots…even alt-country seem to have lost any meaning rather quickly. Despite hailing from a part of the world where those labels are used in abundance, Tommy Hale is just an old school rock and roller. Fully able to rock out when the mood takes him, here we find him pushing a bluesy, bar-room meets music-hall number.

The piano skitters along in Waitsian fashion, the bass pulses, drums play a straight, singular and solid beat, guitars resonate through the gaps but front and centre is Tommy’s whiskey soaked recollections and wailing harmonica.

Let’s not bother with chronology, this is timeless, forget geography or genre, this is nothing less than universally accessible music and nothing more than the soundtrack to a few too many at any bar, anywhere in the world. It could be everything, it might be nothing…who knows, just enjoy it.