I’ll be honest, I was against this album before I even listened to it. Firstly, I had never heard of The Louvin Brothers; secondly, the thought of having to listen to 1950s southern country music was almost soul destroying. If that wasn’t bad enough the cover of the two brothers grinning from ear to ear with guitar and mandolin in hand was enough to make me run for the hills, a mandolin for crying out loud!
I did a little research prior to listening and it would appear the lives of the brothers, well one of them at least, was tragic enough. Charlie and Ira Louvin were in fact real brothers. Yet that is the only thing they appeared to have shared. Whereas Charlie was the sensible brother of the two; Ira was an alcoholic, womanizer, short-tempered sort who was shot in the back three times by his third wife only to survive that to be killed by a drunk driver in 1965.
Anyway, time to get to the album. On first listen I was thinking the album’s title should be shortened to The Louvin Brothers ‘Tragic Songs’. It was fairly uninspiring stuff and the urge to hit skip halfway through was irresistible. In fact if you weren’t listening intently it was hard to decipher where one song ended and the other began.
Always one for punishment, I persisted. The repeated listens were certainly rewarded. This album certainly has some strong points. The first which stands out from the very start is the flawless close harmonies. Charlie’s baritone and Ira’s pure high tenor trade off and fuse with breathtaking ease and effort as only brothers can. Their close harmony set the bench mark for others (such as the Everly Brothers) to follow.
The dichotomous nature of the album is also quite interesting. If you were to read the lyrics alone it is clear this is an album of heartbreak, misfortune and even murder yet play the album and you will realize this is set to upbeat catchy melodies. I’ve been humming many of them without even knowing it the past few days. It’s happy and uplifting music set to very simple arrangements of guitar, mandolin, bass fiddle and snare drum. It’s simple yet very effective and these songs certainly succeed in telling a story, very much in the tradition of old folk music.
Yet it is also this very reason which makes this album rather challenging at times. The BPM rarely shifts throughout the entire album, everything is simple 4/4 or 3/4 time and although the vocals are technically perfect, there is little emotion contained within them which makes it hard to connect to the lyrics being sung.
In general the album starts off very well, the first four strong songs but there is certainly repetitiveness to the whole affair and a few songs are forgettable, especially in the middle section of the album. However, the brothers have succeeded in turning what could have a been a depressing and mundane album and turned it into something quite enjoyable, in places.
Stand-out tracks: ‘Kentucky’, ‘Let Her Go’, ‘What Is Home Without Love’, ‘Katie Dear’
Rating: 6/10
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