On their fourth album, McAlpin and Adam Afiff (double bass) reunite with their ex-Silver City Highway band mates Simon Edwards (drums) and NIck Hurle (pianos), with additional contributions from Georgia Knight on vocals and Cahill Kelly on guitar. The results are more electrically charged, with drive and energy, whilst still retaining the band’s organic warmth and sound.
The album’s tracks exist in a framework of concrete suburbia, city corners, trackside totes, and familial country landscapes – marking the finishing of a catalogue of McAlpin’s songs in the distinct counter-country Americana style the band has pursued for over fifteen years.
Each song represents a distinct point in mind, space, and time. It’s about painting a portrait of the abstract nature of human experience without needing a dense narrative.
This approach was informed by the album’s long gestation, with lyrics gathered from the hills of Dandenong, the trackside totes of Cranbourne, and backyards in Brunswick and Berlin.
In the past, the band has been compared to Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Cash, Don Walker, and Gram Parsons. Add to that list Bill Callahan, Lambchop, and Giant Sand, and you get a real sense of a band operating right across the arc of country and folk music, from the instigators to the modern-day alt-country and Americana progenitors who place the music in contemporary settings, with poetry, atmosphere, and eloquence.
Roller One offers a unique blend of introspective songwriting, sparse instrumentation, and emotionally resonant delivery.
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