Fastman, Riderman

This sprawling 27-track opus finds a home for some of the tracks that didn’t fit Frank Black's his Nashville recorded Honeycomb album from last year, while simultaneously extending those sessions to include new input from the likes of Levon Helm, formerly of The Band, Tom Peterson, ex-Cheap Trick, and Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferone.
It’s a febrile studio climate that produces 90 odd minutes of music, and usually the double album is a harbinger for the worst kind of musical hubris, but credit to Black for producing an engaging and sprightly record which skips between alt-country and acoustic pop and reminds us of his capricious talents.
His much overlooked ear for a strong melody finds a natural home in the Lambchop-ish arrangements, particularly evident on the smoldering ‘Fast Man’, the laconic ‘Highway To Lowdown’ and lachrymose jaunt of ‘My Terrible Ways’. Slide guitar, shoe shuffle brush strokes and soused piano give the whole record a backporch rustic feel, even if Black regularly veers off the designated path into more trademark idiosyncratic territory. ‘In The Time Of My Ruin’ and ‘Kiss My Ring’ signpost his Pixies heritage.
Black’s roguish lyrical charm remains fully intact on ‘I’m Not Dead (I’m In Pittsburgh)’ and ‘Dog Sleep’, while a moonshine burnished version of ‘Dirty Old Town’ could have been an erroneous step, but it just about escapes censure. At this rate he’d be better off chucking in the old day job.