The Gospel Accordion II Marrero LA

The Gospel Accordion II

Mulehead

HTS Recordings, 1999

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 09/22/1999

I don't believe it's any secret that I work with publicists whenit comes to getting new groups reviewed on "The Daily Vault".Often, these discs come generally unsolicited, meaning I have awonderful field of dreams to wade through each week (as well as theoccasional landmine).

I got talking with the publicist for Mulehead, an Arkansas-basedfour piece whose blend of honky-tonk raucous rock is similar to afew groups on the market today. As he was describing the band in aneffort to get me to listen to the disc, he mentioned the way theymix humor with their music. Ah, I said, kind of like The BottleRockets, eh?

Well, sorry, Mark, but the level of humor that Kevin Kerby andcrew use never rises to the plateaus set by the Bottle Rockets. Iwill say this much about Mulehead's sophomore release The Gospel Accordion II: it's a great record to get absorbedin.

The band - vocalist/guitarist Kirby, guitarist/vocalist DaveRaymond, bassist/multi-instrumentalist Brent Labeau and drummerGeoff Curran - does sound like a bastard child of Southern rock,creating a glorious noise that reflects a refreshing attack onmusic so desparately missed these days. This is not your father'sMarshall Tucker Band - and that, I'm sure, suits Mulehead justfine, thank you very much.