Joe’s Truck Stop is the musical outlet of songwriter, folk musician and Joe Macheret who is inspired by his weird and eventful life, as well as folk music from around the world, especially that of Appalachia and the Western United States. On this session he provides vocals and guitar, and was joined by Stephen “Tebbs” Karney on dobro and backing vocals, Ilya Portnov on harmonica, and Joe Wunderle on guitar and backing vocals. This is the first time I have come across this band, but a few years ago I reviewed Joe Wunderle in this series, and one of the musicians playing with him that night was Joe Macheret, so they certainly know each other very well. Apparently, this was the second time a session was recorded by Macheret, but the first time his vocals were affected by smoke from some wildfires he had been close to, so the decision was made to do it again. This time he was recovering from another vocal injury, and that combined with label boss Dan Emery feeling under pressure from his release schedule meant the recordings were put on hold for a couple of years, and it was only when Dan revisited them that he realised they needed to be made available.
In many ways this feels much more like a traditional country album than many in this series, which tends to normally be more bluegrass/folk, and even the cicadas cannot make this feel as genuine and real as others as these guys are so professional as it comes across much more as a studio recording than a live set. The steel guitar is a huge part of the overall sound and I must confess I would rather have had Macheret play in an even more stripped-down fashion, preferably solo. I am sure if the band had not been there then “(Don’t) Put A Nickel in the Jukebox” would have been much more powerful, and probably slower, and all the better for it. Overall this is a fine example of modern country played by guys who really know what they are doing, but for me it does not have the spark of the recent release by Coleman Williams.
Rating: 7/10
Links:
https://www.joestruckstopmusic.com/
https://anticorpmusic.com