In our modern era there seems to be two kinds of “country” music: the first is mass produced pop, barely distinguishable from other mainstream acts save for the exaggerated twang that accompanies the vocal delivery. The second, and rarer, type actually manages to draw influence from the vast stores of forgotten American music. Blanche are decidedly in the latter genre. Guitars strum, banjos pick away, the bass and drums trot along, and the singers wail and whisper their way through a rural wasteland, but the effect is never contrived or kitsch. Songs like “Superstition”, “Do You Trust Me?”, and the plaintive “Another Lost Summer” recall dusty roads populated with simple, hard-working folks with honest and heartfelt emotion. If We Can’t Trust the Doctors… has a moderately dark tone overall and is unafraid to rely on the morbidity of traditional Americana to provide lyrical inspiration; then again, isn’t that what all the real country greats were all about to begin with?

There are no comments yet. You could be the first!