Lively Roots- Rock
Profiting from the collective experience of The Black Crowes’ Steve Gorman and Jackie Greene, Singer Joan Osborne, and session guitarist Tom Bukovac, Americana super group Trigger Hippy’s debut, eponymous release mixes heart with suburb instrumentation. The album marks the culmination of half a decade’s work and a few sets of experimental line-ups, and sees the quintet crafting a sound derived from numerous influences, particularly roots and country- rock.
Coming at a time marked uncertain for the future of The Black Crowes, Trigger Hippy in part serves as a reassurance to fans; perhaps some good can still come out of the band’s rumored disbandment, albeit with a slight musical shift. The album persists with a roots infused, country driven, rock cemented construction that wallows well with the sort of lovey-dovey whimsy endemic to southern custom. Track 8, “Dry County” may best exemplify the vibe of the record, with the vocal might of both Osborne and Greene belting out lyrics cleverly braided into one another. The band’s fluidity surges forth here with divine precision, peaking with melodic intensity felt completely throughout.
“Pocahontas” holds as one of the most cathartic songs on the album, standing uniquely from the rest with a bit of a pop polish. It signifies one of Osborne’s best performances out of the track listing, in consideration of both technical ability and lyricism. The song might also be one of the most widely appealing tracks from Trigger Hippy, as it does not take a particularly developed sense of roots-rock appreciation to get into- not that this is a strict requirement of the album. Most of the other songs on Hippy can be defined (at least loosely) by a genre, whether it is countrypolitan or jam-rock, however “Pocahontas”, in addition with “Tennessee Mud”, begin to separate into something else; a happily confused mixture of roots, rock and roll, country, and grittiness.
Trigger Hippy offers a rare conflation of talent to be seen on a first release, though all members of the band can rightfully be called veterans of their craft. If they continue to press on with touring and recording (which seems like a huge possibility) the band might carve out their own niche in the roots-rock scene one day, joining The Tedeschi Trucks Band as one of the few roots super groups to really latch on with the mainstream. Currently Trigger Hippy is on an American tour that concludes in November, and while their future presents itself as a bit enigmatic, the new album has certainly proven that the band has enough energy to propel itself further.
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