Freakwater – Scheherazade

Comeback Kids

After more than a ten year hiatus, alt-country’s darkest duo of ladies are at it again. Working with a new record label, Bloodshot Records, Catherine Irwin and Janet Beveridge Bean of Freakwater are back with a new album and are set to tour behind it. The duo went to the band’s spiritual home of Louisville to cut the twelve tracks that appear on the Freakwater’s tenth studio album, Scheherazade.

Freakwater has always served as a showcase for Irwin and Bean’s incredibly dissonant breed of country-folk style harmonies that draw incessant comparisons to the vocal stylings of The Carter Family of country music immortality. They often have only minimal help from a supporting cast. They are usually only backed by their longtime bassist, David Gay, and their own guitars. Like with their previous efforts Irwin and Bean’s vocals and dark lyrical subject matter are at the forefront of Scheherazade, but unlike their previous albums they have brought together a large supporting cast to bring a more fully orchestrated and slightly rock sounding tinge to the record. The first song “What the People Want” takes full advantage of this filled out band unleashing a storm of stringed instruments.

Irwin has been quoted as saying that “The real magic of Freakwater arises from the underlying competition between Janet and me,” and that definitely holds true for the sound of this record. Imbued in the vocal harmonies is a sense that Irwin and Bean are in constant competition with each other in an effort to outsing the other. The real winner of this competition turns out to be the listener in the end. Fans are treated to everything from quiet brooding numbers to rabble rousing yells, and it all seems come together.

Scheherazade is a testament to the way that an established band with a working formula can sometimes benefit from adding (or potentially taking away from) their tried and true method. With a little help from their friends Freakwater put out a very enjoyable, if sometimes slightly depressing lyrically, album that will hopefully signal more production from them after their long hiatus.