CRITIC'S PICK: HEALTHY WHITE BABY
By Barry
Gilbert
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
November 10, 2005
With Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys
9 p.m. Nov. 11, 2005, at Frederick's Music Lounge, 4454 Chippewa Street. $8. 314-351-5711.
You have to love a band that
names itself after a line from the Coen Brothers' movie
"Raising Arizona." Add to that its bloodlines -- Danny
Black was the leader of the Blacks, Laurie Stirratt was a member
of Blue Mountain -- and you've got serious alt-country cred,
except that this is not an alt-country band. They can't eliminate
the twang, but it's coming from the garage. HWB is a
stripped-down trio with singer-songwriter Black on guitars,
Stirratt on bass and Ryan Juravic on drums. Their self-titled
debut CD is a three-chord workout, but the subject matter is
mostly about love gone wrong -- way wrong. Must have something to
do with the fact that both Black and Stirratt worked with their
soon-to-be exes in their previous bands. Ouch. Their music
bristles with melancholy and anger, from "Soul"
("love's a disaster I know it's after my soul") to
"Look You in the Eyes" ("let's just see if it's
you or me who/stops drinking taking drugs and dies"). But
hope and redemption are not beyond reach, thanks to a cover of
Bill Monroe's "With Body and Soul" and Black's
affirmative "Home" ("I love you in the morning I
love you in the afternoon").