Rifle County Players - On a Day Like Any Other
Self-released
Released April 20th, 2023
Comprising a rogue’s gallery of local Calgary bar staff, this seven piece behemoth has been toiling in the trenches for the past few years now, building a name for themselves as one of the funnest local country acts around. I first caught them just before lockdown in a nascent form that was somewhat reminiscent of a Ronnie Hawkins fronted version of The Band, but they’ve since morphed into a more traditionally country-oriented group with a pretty unabashed fondness for the classic George Jones/Buck Owens style of Nashville era songcraft, albeit filtered through a batch of kids who clearly grew up amidst the indie/punk local music scene.
Like so many other artists, they took the lockdown as an opportunity to hunker down and self-produce their first full length effort. There’s something really sweet and affecting about seeing musicians feeling their way into a genre that they clearly have a ton of love for, finding their voice & muse in a scene pretty famous for its rigorous and at times fairly gatekeeper-ish standards. I’m happy to report that these guys gamely approach the challenge, showcasing a real knack for clever, earnest songwriting, reflective of what I’m guessing is an almost obsessive listening curriculum drawn from Nashville’s Golden Era.
“I’ve Roped Myself Into a Rodeo” is exactly the type of song I wished a lot more country musicians would have the guts to write - a frank confession that one’s roots aren’t exactly ranch-based. In a world where so many country musicians are afraid of their own backgrounds it’s pretty refreshing to see a songwriter honestly tackle the subject of their dubious country credentials as opposed to putting on a fake Texan accent and a three hundred dollar Lammle’s duster. As confession tunes go however, it’s pretty damned legitimate, the kind of winking, self deprecating song that could easily have come from the pen of Roger Miller, complete with the patented double-entendre wordplay on the catchy little gem of a chorus.
Single “Luke W. Milwaukee” is another such gem, a surprisingly well-crafted tongue-in-cheek character study with a stupidly catchy singalong chorus that gets into your head the moment you hear it. These guys may be relative neophytes when it comes to writing country tunes, but by God, they have clearly studied their craft.
Aside from the pretty impressive songwriting effort, there’s a hell of a vocal lineup here, moored by the sweetly artful backups of Window Lamp’s Hayley Williams who really adds a great pop sheen to the rough and rowdy gang vocals of the boys in the band. Hopefully we’ll see her tackling some leads in the future. I can see a lot of potential there for expanding the sonic palette of the group, as she plays a great foil to the endearingly chummy vocals of lead singer Kyle Lanigan.
There’s also a whole ton of guitars on this album, and you can really tell that the band is just getting rolling when it comes to their potential output. The record is full of tasteful licks, and what it lacks in polish and sheen it more than makes up for in enthusiasm. The overall sense here is that this is a band on the cusp of something cool, making fun, heartfelt music without a lot of ego or artifice. I sadly missed their album release show, but looking at the impressive lineup, which included acts like Carter Felker and Amy Nelson, I couldn’t help but feel like we’re on the cusp of a potential renaissance for country music in Calgary and Alberta right now (if I start counting all the kickass Albertan alt country acts I can think of I run out of fingers pretty quick). My guess is that we’re gonna be treated to a glut of phenomenal albums in the next few years (hell, there’s been more than a few in the last three) and, fingers crossed, our local output will start getting the kind of national and international attention it richly deserves.
- Shaun Lee
