The Electric Corduroy - My Stable Radio

Hear The Track Here

In December 2005 I reviewed a track called They Were Friends froma group called Ryan McAlpin and The Good Cahoots, and a very good track it was too. So much so that I kept in thinking that 2006 may be a good opportunity to get to knows these guys better. OK so They Were Friends was of a decidedly lo-fi acoustic track but the song was good and the performance more than enough to get me interested and I don't even like the genre that much. I do like a good song though, and They Were Friends is that and more. Between then and now though (a year has passed in case you are still trying to work it out) there has been a deadly silence...

Until The Electric Corduroy comes to town, then we'd better hope they are the colour brown.

Surprising then that once you look at the MP3 ID tag there's our old friends Ryan McAlpin and the Good Cahoots. Sorry guys if The Electric Corduroy was a new name but I preferred the original because it always led to the question 'wtf IS a good cahoot anyway?' My Stable Radio certainly sounds like Ryan and had exactly the same qualities of the previous track; extremely lo-fi but interesting for all that. After all, believe me there aren't that many folk rock tunes (that's the genre we are in here) that feature trumpet as a main instrument. Judging by the sound of these two tracks put together, it does seem that this acoustic/brass lineup is a staple of his material and that kind of diversity can only be applauded.

The only problem that My Stable Radio had to face really was my preference for They Were Friends and that track won hands down. Stable Radio is considerably rougher in presentation that Friends and - to my ears anyway - a much better song altogether. Not that My Stable Radio doesn't have a lot to offer, it does if you like good-timey acoustic rock with a brass edge but it was all a bit too frenetic and muffled (and muffed in a couple of spots too) for my own personal taste. More to the point, let's hope that it's not going to be another year before I get to hear something from them because although I didn't get that close to this track - a bit unfinished if ya know what I mean - I do like this artists style and (usual) presentation.

Good time acoustic rock.