Listenin’ to Santa Cruz’s The Devil Makes Three is a little like wanderin’ in the got-damn desert and coming across a got-damn rattlesnake: there’s only whiskey to drink and your six-shooter’s only got one got-damn bullet left. You been savin’ it, too, considerin’ your partner’s been givin’ you the stink-eye.
The Devil Makes Three would in nature be a trio, with guitarist and frontman Pete Bernhard leadin’ the way. He’s joined by upright bassist Lucia Turino and guitarist Cooper McBean. Their punkish loom to American blues, bluegrass, country, and folk music is couched in a concrete rhythmic sense even with the lack of a drummer.
Their latest record, Do Wrong Right, unearths riches of moonshine-drinkin’, tobacco-spittin’ songs worth humming along to on your way to stake your claim. These are songs for the workin’ man (or woman, ‘course). The tunes rumble with yarns of drinkin’, fightin’, lovin’, and losin’. Bolstered by a simple style and honest playing, The Devil Makes Three most likely knocked that got-damn mashed-tater eatin' motherfucker Billy Bob off’n his horse a ways back.
Stacks of comparisons ain’t gonna do this trio any fair dealin’, though it is easy to see where some get the thought that The Devil Makes Three takes a few influences from The Violent Femmes or Steve Earle or other such bandits. Still, there’s a sound all their own here and you’ll be pressed to find a band playin’ with more honesty right now.
Sweet pluck-and-strum rhythm forms the surroundings for “All Hail,” Do Wrong Right’s fun opening track. Bernhard rocks the frontman position, joined with vocal harmonies from his accomplices.
“If you’re gonna do wrong, buddy, do wrong right,” Bernhard gleefully suggests on the record’s title track. When you’re in it up to your elbows, you might as well make the most of it and The Devil Makes Three sure as hell knows this philosophy well. Throwin’ caution to the wind, the band knocks out a helluva hoedown song and “makes a little mess” in the course of it.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
Pretty got-damn good Jordan.
-Glen
2 - Jordan Richardson
Thanks, buddy. And thanks for not assuming that was a spelling error and correcting it all to hell! You are a gentleman and a scholar, sir.
3 - Jeannie Danna
Hi Jordan,
I am here to thank you for taking your time in my comment field! You really encouraged me, cause right now I feel like I am way outta my league... But like my mom taught me "never give up!" I wrote a story today for her.. one of the things I would really like to see America do is adopt health care similar to Canada's I realize you are conservative? We can still converse though, right? Well gotta go..like the blues I went to Chicago on a train for the blues fest once. Drank at Buddy Guy's bar..can't remember a thing! :) bye