Chronogram
May 2006 by J. Spica
Mark Brown: Uncle Buckle
Rambling his way from the Northern Pacific
to Ireland, Mark Brown has lived the life on the iterant laborer and
musician. Now back in Kingston, he and his band cover the musical
journey on the gritty trail from youth (with songs like “Sex
in Cars”
and “ Gravel Pit Girl”) to the drinking years of
young adulthood in
“PBR,” an ode to Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. The
musicians are Hudson
Valley homeboys --- Brown sings and plays guitar, John Hughes provides
bass, Fooch Fischetti works the pedal steel guitar and plays fiddle,
and Dean Jones supplies percussion and everything else.
“Gravel Train” touches on the difficulties that
forge one’s character,
and Brown sings it as if Tom Waits went bluegrass. There are several
musical poems that are under two minutes, one being “Paper
Thin,” a
hillbilly punk twang that makes fun of itself with the lyrics
(“just a
cheap little song, maybe a little too long.”)
Uncle Buckle performs at the Mezzanine Café and wine bar on
Friday, May 26 at 8pm. Preview: The Daily
Freeman’s
Weekly Guide to
Events
May 26, 2006
“Uncle Buckle”
isn’t just the title of
Kingston singer-songwriter Mark Brown’s debut album and the
name of the
30 second songlet that kicks it off. It is also what Brown calls the
loose, changeable band he cobbles together to perform his rough-carved
songs.
Next to Brown’s raw voice and guitar, the outfits other
constant is the
presence of Saugerties multitalented Dean Jones, best known for his
trombone stylings in various avant-jazz settings and with hot local
Latin ensemble Sonando. Here M.V.P. Jones makes his debut on drums and
contributes ukulele, synthesizer and backing vocals. The
disc’s other
key player is Fooch Fischetti, whose pedal steel guitar gives the album
much of its atmospheric, honkey-tonk character.
But it’s Brown’s earth tunes that hold Uncle Buckle
together, sepia
toned Walker Evans vignettes that cast a lens on the memorable
characters and events he has encountered during his woody Guthrie-esque
existence as a farmer, mechanic, fisherman and carpenter. In the Neil
Youngish “PBR,” Brown sings of attempting to kill
rural boredom by
shooting empty beer cans and smoking, er,
“suspicious” cigarettes;
“Gravel Pit Girl” is a sleepy weeper of an ode to
the resident dirt
bike diva of some backwoods wasteland.
Naturally the myth of the ramblin’ man looms large in
Brown’s
repertoire too. Check the 25-second micro-haikus “Trouble on
the Train”
and the hard-scrabble “Dirt Road.” Throughout, the
vagabond poetry of
his lyrics and their coarse delivery prove the perfect match. During
“East End Blues,” as his parched baritone croaks
out the lines “Ever
had a day when/ the most precious thing to have would be/ a pair of dry
shoes,” be ready to watch your speakers crumble into dust and
blow
away. Brown lives in the Rondout, but sounds like prefers Death Valley.
A pungent, rust-flavored homebrew distilled from the murky spirits of
such journey-man troubadour-poets as John Prine, Johnny Cash, Lee
Hazelwood, Townes Van Zant and Tom Waits, “Uncle
Buckle’s” gritty sound
and catchy hooks are rich with damaged beauty. Brown’s vision
is a
welcome alternative to that of Jack Johnson, James Taylor and the other
whiny lightweights that currently dominate the F.M. dial.
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