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Make some musician friends. Start a band. Write
songs. Play bars. Break up. Move apart. Reunite
posthumously to record a CD's worth of old material and
release. Become The Estradas.
Nothing exceptional here, no musings or guitar
noodlings that you wouldn't hear at your local bar on a
Saturday night -- okay, maybe a Tuesday night -- but
none of it is horrible, either. Bob McCluskey, chief
songwriter, and his c-guitarist Ponch barrel through ten
beer-soaked rock tunes about wanting women, losing women
and admiring women from afar. The music is better than
the vocals, which are authentically out of tune, but an
occasional witty line ("You don't let me bring you down
/ You drag me up to your higher ground / But if I was
you, I would hate me" from "If I Was You") and some
notable guitar playing, particularly later in the album,
had me rooting for the band, despite the fact that I was
listening to them in my car, not a saloon. "This Town"
is surprisingly subtle in its missing-you lyrics,
hinting at the group's underlying potential, but the
band's charm is pegged head-on with "Deborah Devenue",
an ode to a pretty Montreal transplant ("I want to know
how the maple leaf / Blew on down to Tennessee") whose
boyfriend ditches her at a truck stop, resulting in her
taking a job greeting people at Wal-Mart. All that's
missing from this ditty is a hand-clap track. Add three
beers and enjoy. -- Justin
Kownacki
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