Review: Andrea & Mud grease up their own spaghetti western music on ‘Bad News Darlin’

(Independent)

Spaghetti Western music has a particular razzle-dazzle to it. Originally derived from a sub-genre of hyper-stylish western-teased filmmaking, born from Italian director Sergio Leone’s repertoire, the dusty musical soundtrack would later become as integral, and influential, as the films themselves. Quentin Tarantino is the most notable modern-day auteur lifting common themes and musical threads from his predecessors, but the saloon-tailored aesthetic traces throughout much of popular culture. Pound for pound, bluesy Americana duo Andrea & Mud shovel their way through spaghetti western music themselves, cracking into the topsoil of Ennio Morricone’s design (he’s credited in scoring such films as A Fistful of Dollars and often used gunshots, cracking whips, and other oddball objects). The duo fashion an intensely dusty spin, laying on thick textures, crunches, and underpinnings that bang, clang, and compliment their mysterious C&W sagas.

Out of Waleska, Georgia, a town which registered fewer than 700 people in 2010, Andrea Colburn and Kyle “Mud” Moseley are devilish pranksters, howling their way through grimy old fashioned tunes that could backdrop some shoot ’em up epic. As much as they reference influences from John Cephas to Merle Travis, Andrea & Mud possess a singular style; Andrea with her scruffy, throaty snarl, and Mud with his swampy, lanky timbre that jabs squarely at your chest. Together, they swinging their way across the honky-tonk dance floor (“I Ain’t Home”), scootin’ their boots and scraping the floorboards before flinging up scraps of hay. They squeeze your heart dry (“Send Your Love My Way”), stage their own guns a’blazing showdown (“Leave”), and watermelon crawl with the boozy, late-night binger “Yer Majesty.”

Andrea & Mud jive in their rhinestone-stitched bravado, sliding along slick and slimy grooves, courtesy of a smorgasbord of players on various instruments and moments; musicians include Tre Watts (upright bass), Adam Higgins (electric bass, organ), Will Derr (drums), Bradley Daugherty (drums), Brett Resnick (pedal steel), Liz Sloan (fiddle), Chad Paulin (trumpet), and Jim Ivy (saxophone). It’s easy to get lost in their contagious luster ⏤ songs like “Used Car Salesman” and “Little Blue Truck” prick the senses with their fascinating reapplication of genre scuffles. Bad News Darlin’ (co-produced with Damon Moon) is a beastly feast, and their supple, immersive storytelling is as precise as a needlepoint. Before you know it, you’ve depicted your very own spaghetti western in your head. They’re that good.

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