The Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers is "contemporary old-time country with a sense of humour…"

The Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers
DON’T THINK ABOUT TOMORROW TONIGHT
Self release
****
Contemporary old-time country with a sense of humour
If you’re a fan of old-time country music then the new album from The Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers is going to float your boat so high it will end up ten miles inland. Lovelorn and lost but still able to at least see the sunny side of the street, the titles here tell their own tale: the punning ‘Fools Were Made To be Broken’, ‘Come On Back, Break My Heart’, ‘It’s Lonely At The Bottom’: this is classic heartbreak set to a jaunty melody driven along by fiddle and steel guitar.
Effectively a duo (Nikki Grossman & Joe Hart) augmented for the studio, they have a sense of humour too so this is no po-faced homage. The wry post-relationship song ‘If You Don’t Exist’ and particularly ‘This Song’ – we have no idea if we know the words or indeed the tune – which in other hands would be cynical here is just fun
It’s not easy pastiche either. The dozen songs all stand up in their own right, the sound is contemporary as is the production – no valve amplifiers or recordings in a backwoods cabin here fortunately. Hank would be proud: no higher praise is possible.
Jeremy Searle
https://www.sapsuckersmusic.com