Per the SCOTS credo, Favorites mixes pure and impure country and blues faves (nice psychedelic blues remake of Harpo's "Te Ni Nee Ni Nu") with garage-stained remakes (a strongly respectful version of the Byrds' "Have You Seen Her Face," a CCR-indebted remake of the Blues Magoos' great "Tobacco Road" being among the highlights of the latter) – no surf instrumentals, but then I s'pose it's a major squeeze to try and cram that under the "countrypolitan" umbrella. Unlike too many cover sets, Miller and company don't fall into the trap of attempting to replicate the originals at the expense of their own sound: as with Ray Charles' (remember him?) groundbreaking Modern Sounds, each track is burnished with the band's unique sonic stamp. Only time they arguably fall down is on the finish, a bluegrass remake of the Who's "Happy Jack" that comes across more a novelty than a fully realized song. But that's only a small misstep in an elpee that's already provided more genuwine country rockin' than you'll hear in a month o' mainstream radio. True Alt Countrypolitan.
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Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
One of the keys to the new disc's success is the greater prominence devoted to bassist Mary Huff's vocals
nice review...and very true about Mary's vocals.
when i saw SCOT several years ago, she really got the joint rockin' late in the evening with "House of Bamboo"
this is such a fun record.
2 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites and Boston.com (going live soon).