Album Review

The Whiteliars – The Whiteliars

• 26th Aug 2009

The Whiteliars self-titled LP is an enjoyable debut from an Irish five piece playing Americana roots music, who played their debut Dublin show for Glasswerk back in April.

Spearheaded by respected producer Leo Pearson; who has worked with some of the biggest names in the business (more on that later). It’s always nice to see a transition from mixing desk to lead singer of a band though, although mixed results are noted: The horrific Script being one example, multiple nights in the Olympia sold out, has the world gone that mad? Ahem, ok mini rant over. Back to business.

Thankfully Leo Pearson makes a far better first go of it. Pearson produced for high profile acts such as U2 and Elvis Costello in the past before moving his focus to up and coming Dublin acts such as the now defunct Subtonics and The Things (and too many more to mention).

Interestingly Pearson got the ball rolling single-handedly on this record, the band assembled afterwards when the time came to take the record on the road. Armed with a love for American roots Leo played “all of the instruments on this album himself” – no mean feat when you hear it first hand. There is some great musical interplay throughout which is a testament to Pearson as a musician.

Elements of classic country and roots bands such as The Band are prevalent throughout the record, particularly with the trademark pedal steel and slide guitars (courtesy of NC Lawlor – Dublin’s nod to Seasick Steve). We also have a bit of Zeppelin type mouth organ on a number of tracks particularly prevalent on ‘Fallen to Pieces’ – easily one of the album standouts.

Pearson possesses a distinctive drawling voice similar to Rob Leven from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Ironically, the album on the whole does sound very similar to Black Rebel Motorcycles enjoyable venture into the acoustic world of ‘Howl’.

Standouts on this record for me are opening track ‘Waiting in Line’ with its banjo and pedal steel licks. It is also that bit more uptempo and moves at a nice clip. Others include ‘Hold Me Down’: a really beautiful country ballad-esque number which features a male/vocal duet that works really well with some pleasant harmonising. ‘November Skies’ features an almost Romanian style gypsy guitar riff. It’s probably the most inventive of the tracks on the album. There are also elements of Tom Waits style fairground zaniness here.

The Zeppelin influenced ‘Fallen to Pieces’ is a cracking track and it is here when The Whiteliars up their ante that they sound at their most enthralling. The album though enjoyable as it is, is a little one paced at times and it needs more upbeat tracks to keep the listener engaged.

Overall though this is a decent first effort and certainly a surprisingly authentic sounding foray into Roots and Blues, not quite what you would expect from an Irish band. It is clear where its influences come from and it will be interesting to see where the Whiteliars go from here. Watch this space.