A Free Man

I fear that with my Antipodean explorations, I’ve sent A Free Man careening uncontrollably down an indie-pop trail. Well, it is time to take the wheel again and steer us temporarily back onto that long open highway of Americana.

I remember talking alt-country one night with a slightly older friend who took great pleasure in lecturing me about Uncle Tupelo not being the first band to mix punk and country. John Doe and Exene Cervenka did it while Tweedy and Farrar were still playing with Tonka trucks - was roughly how this diatrabe went. This is probably true, but they were doing it while I was playing with Tonka trucks as well, and I’ve never been able to really get into X.

So when Boston’s Sarah Borges breaks out in “Come Back to Me” from X’s “Under the Big Black Sun” on her recent record she’s making a statement - “I’m a little bit country, but I’ve got solid punk rock creds.” The thing is, this posturing isn’t necessary because, whether or not they’re “a little bit punk” Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles have made a proper good country record. In this era of saccharine radio country that is something of which to be damn proud. Not bad for a Yankee girl.

What Borges and her crew are doing is making old-school country music - the kind of music that came out of Nashville before things went horribly wrong in the 80’s. It’s her band , The Broken Singles, that makes the first impression on her “Diamonds in the Dark” sophomore LP - they’re solid and polished rollicking in with a classic country riff. But when Borges comes in they don’t overshadow her clear and brassy vocals.

Borges and the band are at their best on tracks like “False Eyelashes” as they lay down that old style country that is so notably absent from today’s C&W radio. They honk and tonk with the best of them on cuts like “Open Up Your Back Door” and when she unleashes her Broken Singles to jam “Diamonds in the Dark” is at its strongest. Mike Castellana is just masterful when he sits down at the pedal steel - go baldies! The only time “Diamonds in the Dark” pales is when they slow things down a little. That’s not to say that the softer ballads fall flat, they just aren’t as compelling as the up tempo numbers.

Borges gets compared to Lucinda Williams in a few reviews but I think a more apt comparison is to Ottawa’s Kathleen Edwards. Borges is a stronger singer than the Canadian, but they share the same slightly bend lyrical sensibility that plants them firmly in the “alt” camp.

Check out “Open Up The Backdoor” and if you enjoy it Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles’ “Diamonds in the Dark” is out on Sugar Hill and available from and Amazon.

MP3: Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles - “Open Up The Backdoor”