DAVE'S DIARY - 3 JANUARY 2007 - THE WRECKERS CD REVIEW
THE WRECKERS 2006 CD REVIEW
MICHELLE BRANCHS OUT INTO MURDER
"He left a reminder with nine months to go/ that's why I killed his
wife and wrecked up his home." - Crazy People - Michelle Branch-Jessica
Harp.
 |
Michelle
Branch tilled country music's murder staple when she walked the pop
plank after winning a Grammy with Santana. Branch and fellow singer Jessica Harp - aka The Wreckers - emulate Dixie Chicks in a tale as graphic as the late Dennis Linde penned hit Goodbye Earl. But instead of just murdering a cheating thief they also kill his wife in Crazy People on their debut disc Stand Still, Look Pretty (Maverick-Warner.) "Well he loved his whiskey and his fists loved my face/ so I buried that man and they won't find a trace." |
The duo wrote
10 of 12 tunes - The Good Kind debuted on TV series One Tree Hill
- but neither woman lives down to their Maverick record label name.
At 23 Arizona born Branch has three solo albums in her slipstream and
Kansas City born Harp, 24, also released a 2002 indie CD.
Branch produced first hit - a cover of Jennifer Hanson-Billy Austin tune
Leave The Pieces - with John Shanks.
John Leventhal - second husband of Rosanne Cash - cut most of the album
in New York in 2004.
PREGNANT PAUSE
"Only crazy people/fall in love with me/they come from all over/to be with me/bank robbers and killers/drunk and drug dealers." - Crazy People - Michelle Branch-Jessica Harp.
| But
a 2005 release date was delayed when Branch and bassist husband Teddy
Landau were expecting their first child. "The more pregnant I became, plans kept changing," Branch recently revealed. "I have my daughter to thank actually. If we had gone ahead with the plan, I don't think this record would have ever been heard. Everything really happens for a reason. Jessica and I have really learned that." With Judds retired as a duo and Dixie Chicks suffering a radio ban it was ideal timing for a new duo with heavenly harmonies. The Wreckers landed their first CMA nomination and sold more than 420,000 copies of their debut after Leave the Pieces reached #1 on Billboard's country airplay chart - a rarity. Harp and Branch penned rollicking Paul Worley produced new single My Oh My with Wayne Kirkpatrick and Josh Leo in Nashville. |
 |
"That
is our favourite song for sure," Branch says of the tune that is
accompanied by a new video clip.
"I really think if we hadn't been so paranoid about the label's reaction
we would have more My, Oh My moments on the record. Our second
record will be more My, Oh My. If you heard the original version,
you'd chuckle because it was such a straightforward bluegrass thing.
We were playing it live, and people kept going crazy over this song."
So it's not surprising Branch was miffed to learn a pop version of Leave
The Pieces was released here.
"They took out all the fiddle, mandolin, banjo, it lost its life,"
Branch said.
But record companies also gelded Keith Urban with pop mixes in an attempt
to break him here in the unlucky radio country.
The Wreckers utilise superb harmonies on escapist bliss in vehicular imagery
of Way Back Home and Cigarettes, unrequited love of Tennessee,
unbridled passion of Lay Me Down and Hard To Love You and
regret fuelled Rain.
Maybe they'll echo the soul-baring message of the title track and bypass
our myopic corporate radio chains with a video assault.