By David O’Neill
Parker Barrow’s sophomore album, ‘Hold The Mash’, is a louder, dirtier and more assured statement than many bands manage on a second pass, with Megan Kane’s voice tearing through the mix like a headliner who knows the room is hers. It leans hard into blues-soaked Southern rock, but there’s enough swagger, hook and muscle to keep it from sounding like a retro exercise.
From the opening rush of ‘The Healer’ throws in Joe Walsh-style slide and a Hammond swirl that gives the track extra lift. ‘Blinded’ has an ‘All Right Now’ feel to its opening but it doesn’t detract from the musicality and grit in Megan Kane’s vocal performance.
‘Nothing Left To Save’ offers up a lilting, yet upbeat, track that gives everyone a place in its making with some really Allman Brothers guitaring in the breakdown, while ‘Novocaine’ settles into a sleazier, bass-heavy crawl that feels built for a smoky club floor with the vocals again taking front and centre over the instrumentation; it’s a great track. ‘Olivia Lane’ shows a softer side before detonating into full electric force, and that dynamic shift is one of the album’s best tricks.
With ‘Make It,’ the band plants its boots in a deep groove and lets the guitars strut, with some huge drumming and a bit of Pointer Sisters sound to the backing vocals, not that there is anything wrong with that!
‘Glass Eyes’ taps a more classic ’70s rock initially opening up a bit like Joe Cocker’s ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ before picking up the pace and pulse without losing bite. ‘Rubys Reckoning’ has a much more bluegrass feel to it with an acoustic guitar picking its way through the tune with some subtle slide guitar included for effect.
Topping it all off is cover of the Black Crowes’ ‘My Morning Song’. Altogether well worth the effort.
If their debut ‘Jukebox Gypsies’ nodded toward The Black Crowes, The Allman Brothers and Tedeschi Trucks Band, ‘Hold The Mash’ feels tighter and more pointed, with a stronger sense of personality. There are flashes of Stonesy riffing, a touch of Fanny’s bite, and enough raw-boned groove to make comparisons with those classic-leaning peers inevitable, but Parker Barrow sound less like imitators and more like a band sharpening its own identity.
This is southern rock with muscle, melody and attitude, and it hits the sweet spot between vintage feel and modern punch.
- ‘Hold The Mash‘ will be released tomorrow (Friday 17 July).
- Parker Barrow will also kick off their latest tour tomorrow, with their appearance at next weekend’s Steelhouse Festival being on my “gotta watch” list:
- They will also return to these shores in November:
