Cowboy Sally's Twilight Laments For Lost Buckaroos
Since they first discovered country music as members of England's belovedMekons, Sally Timms,Jon Langford, andRico Bellhave been firing off albums of their own interpretations of the genre: Timms and Bell as solo artists, Langford with his fieryWaco Brothers. On Timms's first full-length collection of her so-called "art country," she tames her former band's beer-and-whiskey rep in favor of stripped-down, traditional performances of songs she cowrote with Langford, and covers of those written byRobbie Fulks,Johnny Cash, Jeff Tweedy (ofWilco), and theHandsome Family. With a sweet-as-honey delivery that often turns into a spoken whisper, Timms can follow a waltz about milkmen withRoy Rogersroundups about Dr. Strangelove, but it's on the fiddle-driven romp "Snowbird" that Cowboy Sally's true Mekons spirit comes alive.--Scott Holter