Digging You Up

The New Mexico-based Hazeldine are in the vanguard of the American alt (alternative) country movement. In real musical terms, that means they are doing what the country rock bands of the early seventies did, a little louder than Tammy Wynette and a little punkier than The Eagles and that's about all, y'all.

But for those whose teeth are aching from the saccharine ersatz-country of the likes of Shania Twain and Leanne Rymes, the gutsiness evident in much of Hazeldine's second album will offer some welcome relief, even if it does feature four reheated versions of songs from their debut.

The opening track 'Allergic To Love', enters with the loping, lazy chord-shifts more associated with Britpop than Nashville. The delicious harmonies of Shawn Barton and Anne Treach, who also play guitar and bass respectively, are instantly captivating. And that opener basically forms the template for the rest of Digging You Up.

The lyrics throughout the album evoke vistas of the American desert, long lonesome highways, beat-up cars and smoke-filled bars, as on 'Drive'. Along the road you get rare but welcome hints of country-punk mixed among cry-baby ballads like the title song, 'Dead Love', 'Pocket' and 'Bob' (which all start off with some noises that promise more than they ultimately deliver) and the relatively anaemic 'Realise'. All offer you a comforting hard shoulder to cry on, while 'Daddy', in content, delivery and even in its very title, suggests Hazeldine are more old-style cry-in-your-milk country than alternative anything.

There's some beguiling guitar-playing from Tonya Lamm throughout, drummer Jeffrey Richards lays down a solidly-disciplined beat that brooks no argument and there's one non-original, Grant Lee Buffalo's 'Fuzzy', into which they all shine some new light.

But Highway 61 or Route 66 this ain't. Overall, Hazeldine seem disappointingly content to cruise those open highways in third gear, as if the journey is more important than the destination. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but they're really going nowhere quite as interesting as they would like you to think they are.