Split Lip Rayfield Never Make It Home

OUT OF PRINT

After a bit of tinkering, these bluegrass outlaws emerged from their garage soot-smeared, short of temper and ready for beer with their third album. Steel yourself for the trademark souped up hillbilly barrage. Never Make it Home features Split Lip Rayfield's bluegrass underground sound, tick-tight playing and even a few sing-along anthems about bad cars ("Kiss of Death" and beer "PB24SS"). The attitude remains but this disc also features a contemplative "been there, done that" perspective that's strangely (gasp) mature and disarming. The songwriting comes to the fore as never before with perniciously catchy tunes like "Movin' to Virginia" and "Used to Call Me Baby." This time around, SLR tries to reason with you before they bust your head, but when the fists start flying, don't say you weren't warned. The perfect disc to listen to on the way to your bail hearing.

"It's easy to hear the desperation of a guy bent over the fender of a '68 Ford pickup in the front yard of his farmhouse, tools scattered about, knuckles bloody and grease up to his elbows. Sweating, cussing, half-drunk, he's trying to get that damn truck running so he can get to work tomorrow. Split Lip gets the truck running and floors it, spraying gravel and scaring the bejesus out of the kids." —Austin Chronicle

"Once you get past the raw and rugged surface, Split Lip’s music is informed by surprisingly nimble and deceptively complex arrangements, tasteful and inventive playing, well-formed harmony, and great storytelling." —Boston Phoenix