Crooked Fingers - Red Devil Dawn Demos

Label: self released
Year: 2005

Back to Eric Bachmann, and the Crooked Fingers material that filled the Archers Of Loaf shaped hole in my heart circa 1998. As far as musical signposts go, I tend to re-calibrate towards Mr. Bachmann every few weeks, or at most, months. I've found that his (and his counterparts) songwriting cuts through a lot of what I want cut through, and hits in just the right spot (insert G-spot joke here). And hits hard.
The 'Red Devil Dawn' proper album came off the heels of the melancholic (even by Crooked Fingers standards) 'Bring On The Snakes' , and while retaining the spare Springsteen via Waits via Fahey via Jennings forward march against bad luck and meddling miscreants, the songs were injected with horns and lounge-y melodies and Mexican swing to great effect. Again, by Crooked Fingers standards it was a sunny day after a month of rain. The demos here are the skeletal and delicately plucked shadows of those album versions. Fully formed in their own rights, they carry the full weight of Bachmann's rasp, and are held aloft by the underrated, glorious guitar playing that he uses to map the darker corners of dying town, or a drawn out one sided love affair. There are few singer/songwriters who can wring so much emotion from such minimal composition. It's amazing to me. Which explains why I'm always circling back.

DL