Luke Doucet Woos with Tales of the Road

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 8, 2008 4:21PM

It's bad enough Canadian's have been biting a bunch of our indie cred, now they're going after our insurgent country sound too?! Seriously, it's time we start throwing some more grant money our musicians' way so we don't lose the sonic arms race!

Luke Doucet sounds an awful lot like a mellower version of the Old 97s with plenty of pop injected into his twang. Blood's Too Rich is his most recent album and it's filled with tales of the road that alternate between woeful, weary, burly, and mean.

At times we find his band's delivery a little too polite considering his subject material, and at one point Doucet utterly confounded us with an ill-advised cover of The Cure's "The Lovecats." However, when Doucet's songs work they can impress.

For instance, the long, winding workout at the end of "Cleveland" is satisfyingly majestic, and "First Day (In The New Home Town)" marries sweet melodies with guitars that would stretch Poncho Sampedro's grizzled jowls into a grin. "The Comandante" is flecked with Latin horn flourishes that lifts it's country-fired rock above many other offerings within the genre. And the slow tom-driven rumination of "Bombs Away" provides a perfect close to the album. Throughout most of Blood's Too Rich, Luke Doucet and the White Falcon deliver strong and satisfying Southern tunes that happen to be crafted North of the border.

Luke Doucet and the White Falcon play Friday, July 11, at Subterranean, 2011 W North, 9 p.m., $10, 18+

Photo from Doucet's MySpace page