I seem to recall when writing about Mark’s album Vegas Motel, specifically tracks such as Nate’s Garage, that I was taken with that dexterous and energetic country groove that he was able to evoke so well. There was plenty more going on with the album in terms of sound and genre, but that is a style that he made his own. So I was overjoyed when I dropped the virtual needle on his new digital record to find that Daisy Train was a song in that same vein.
Daisy Train is about the most infectious song that you are going to hear this year, a salvo of buoyant, rockabilly beats and dexterous guitar play, much of it courtesy of guitar-picker to the great and good – everyone from Emmylou Harris to Eric Clapton to The Everly Brothers – namely Albert Lee. Harmonica washes through, riffs rock, basses pulse, and the energy levels never once drop below the point on the dial marked – “high octane party.”
And the inspiration? Well, Daisy Train is about the Festival Express Tour that took the Grateful Dead, The Band and Janis Joplin through Canada in 1970, and you can imagine how full-on that must have been. You can see where the song gets its momentum from.
Taken from the forthcoming album Palisade Peach, if this doesn’t make you want to rush out and buy that long player as soon as is humanly possible, then perhaps music isn’t for you after all. Sorry, but that’s the way it is.
