Old Paint

Freakwater | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 10, 1995)
• Original Release Date: October 6, 1995
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Thrill Jockey
• ASIN: B000004B2P
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #365,859 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Freakwater makes a brand of acoustic-guitar-and-pedal-steel alt.country that's inspired, partly, by old-time country, though but by no means slavishly. For one thing, the group's frontwomen, Catherine Irwin and Janet Bean, write songs from thoroughly modern points of view. (The Carter Family never sang about slitting their wrists.) For another, Irwin's and Bean's striking harmonies are so ragged as to go flat (purposely?). Usually this strident approach only enhances the lonely poignance of the songs, but occasionally they push the technique to annoyance. Maybe it's no surprise then that, on Old Paint, the best numbers generally dispense with harmonies altogether, leaving one singer's haunting voice to weep all alone. --David Cantwell

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for Every Taste, December 24, 2003

By 

James Carragher (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old Paint (Audio CD)

Old Paint is a throwback, music so roughhewn that you might expect to hear it on a scratchy 78 in some Appalachia cabin. This is mostly a matter of Freakwater's commanding vocals, intricate harmonies woven in almost hoarse, edgy voices of sleepless nights and smoke. It's a sound that works best for darkness, death, and dirges that make up the bulk of the songs here, but can also be surprisingly effective on upbeat numbers like Kentucky Home. When Freakwater sings, on Gone to Stay, "shovel, dirt and gravel/all his mother hears is the sound/of a little baby crying/somewhere in the ground," the words stay with you for a good long while. Not a CD you'll want to play when you need cheering up, and the singing goes shrill (Hero/Heroine) at times. But if deep, old-style country is one of your musical tastes, talented Freakwater should be heard.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EVERYONE WHO LOVES COUNTRY MUSIC SHOULD OWN THIS CD, November 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Old Paint (Audio CD)

I can't believe there are no other reviews of this CD. I heard "Gravity" on the radio 3 years ago (public radio, of course; commercial country radio wins the unimaginative programming award hands down) and was bowled over by the lyrics and vocals. For me, it's the contrast of world-weary and angelic voices singing amazing poetry to a wonderful melody that makes life worthwhile. My husband describes Freakwater as the Carter Family meets the 90's, but even that doesn't do them justice. It's old-timey country put together with amazingly prescient lyris and lilting melodies, but with an almost jagged, modern edge. Many of the songs deal with sad subjects (OK, death is present and there's "nothing so pure as the kindness of an atheist") but I never feel depressed when I listen to this CD. "Burying Geraldine" is the one song that does make me cry, but the words paint a picture so bittersweet that it's worthwhile. "Kentucky House", "Waitress Song" and "Ugly Man", all make me dance, despite their often ironic, melancholy words. If you love SONGS (as opposed to poetry put to a strumming guitar, or a beat with no lyrics to mean anthing) then you NEED this CD. It's on my desert island disc list, second only to Dave Alvin's "King of California". Order it immediately.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After you listen you'll wonder how you lived without it, February 3, 2006

By 

August Lamczyk "The pride and joy of Southern... (Springfield, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old Paint (Audio CD)

I try to be open to all music but I do lean to what folks call alt-country and not regular country. Now to me the later seems well like some kind of a mass produced dumb down southern rock/top forty hybrid and the former like the real deal... lyrically heartfelt, honest, and a bit depressing with a sound that well sounds like country of old, or maybe it'd be better to just say a stripped down sound. This CD was my first exploration with the critter known as Freakwater and I was hooked from the get go. The album is so rooted in reality that it was often played by me to get through tough emotional, financial, drunken, fill in the blank times (John Prine was the other country artist that was leaned on as well). Buy this album if you are just baffled by the lack of solid song writing in any genre.