Over the course of fourteen years and eight studio records, the Gourds have scuttled across Americana/roots-rock like one of them newfangled 'Roomba' robot vacuum cleaners -- patrolling the turf, drawing up bits and pieces, hitting a wall, spinning about, skittering off at a new tangent, bumping a table leg, wheeling and doing it all again. And, at the end of the day, it's all in there -- shaken and stirred.
Although clearly a product of their Austin, Texas, home, the Gourds variously recall (and frequently achieve) the pan-genre brilliance of such far-flung, loose-limbed exemplars as The Band, NRBQ, Los Lobos, and the Morells/Skeletons.
Soulful, funky, nutty and eternally buoyant, Heavy Ornamentals follows the band's established path of alternating tunes by its primary songwriter/singers, Jimmy Smith and Kevin Russell -- each and every one replete with electric wordplay. Smith and Russell spin out inspired stealth wisdom disguised as beer-snorking hogwash, and they and their deluxe cohorts drive it all home with the wheezy power of a leaky-valved muscle car.
Cool stuff emerges with each repetition. "Burn The Honeysuckle" has an organically wobbly, Nitty Gritty-meets-The Band vibe. Smith's honking "Mr. Betty" is primo 'Keef' Stones; Russell's itchy "Shake The Chandelier" is about a mover and a half, illuminating the late, great Doug Sahm. Unhinged junk-trap marvels "Hooky Junk" (with a bonus send-off nod to Van Morrison's "Blue Money") and "Pill Bug Blues" sound like undiscovered favorites from the wondrous toy box of NRBQ's Terry Adams.
Throughout, the disconnect is the connection -- whether on the Dylan/Ian Hunter-at-"Penny Lane" of "Pick & Roll", the halting Floyd Cramer pianistics on the Randy Newman-styled "Our Patriarch", or the "Cowgirl In The Sand" underpinnings of "Weather Woman". All in all, it's big-time stuff with small-town heart. Again.
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