President Roots - Migration

5 October 2009 by Max Easton

“President Who?” I ask in some confusion.

“Roots. President Roots,” replies Richard Wilson, Soulshine’s current editor, webmaster and the man that sits behind the hordes of incoming albums, “I don’t know if it’s any good, but we should probably review it.”

“I hope it’s not dub.”

Pretentious, introductory dialogue aside, the debut President Roots album ‘Migration’ is not dub. As their name suggests, the band is a good old-fashioned Australian Blues & Roots act in the vein of the Beautiful Girls circa 2002. Not, as it could be imagined, a New Zealand dub act. That bodes well for this review, since I can actually make it through the album’s duration without skipping through repetitive rhythm guitar and echo effects.

What President Roots are, is an alt-country, folk-rock outfit of smile-inducing consequence. It barely takes a second into the album (through opening track ‘River of Life’) to realise and appreciate the heights of the fun these boys can bring to the table. It feels like a perfect song to kick off a road trip, with punchy up-tempo acoustic guitars dragging along Simon Dodds lead vocals. Let that track fade out, and a mandolin brings in second track and single ‘She Lights Up,’ a knee slapping country ditty that would be as at home in a mid-west American saloon as it is spinning around your decrepit CD player in the garage at home. One thing that strikes me about this album is that it’s music for all places, it’s a very easy listen without being simple. It’s fun, it’s straight forward and it sounds great. Even on the more downbeat tracks like ‘Main Street’ and the absolutely superb ‘Why Don’t You Come Around,’ President Roots continue bringing in the grins.

‘Why Don’t You Come Around,’ for mine, is the album’s dizzying high point. It’s a beautiful track of sweeping rhythm, soaring melodies and stunning backing vocals, with lyrics offering relationship advice for Michael Hutchence and Kylie Minogue. This heart-string yanking track is followed by the moderately ridiculous ‘Professor Longhair,’ which is essentially a three and a half minute venture into strange territory, with lyrics describing Fats Domino riding a horse on a trampoline with a lady Madonna between his legs. As funny as that sounds, the track seems a little out of place on the album and fails to match the quality of the tracks surrounding it.

A couple of tracks later and President Roots regain form with the Neil Young-flavoured harmonica and electric guitar intro to ‘Drop Out,’ shades of CSNY follow the rest of the somber ditty, with a very Neil-esque solo halfway through. It’s another top song which precedes even more; ‘Jealousy’ is another up-tempo alt-country beast whilst ‘Biggest Fan’ is a boppy romp through Monkees style vocals and mandolin solo’s. The remainder of the album includes the G-Love styled ‘Somebody Elses Day,’ a down-tempo fingerpicked ballad that plays nicely into the hands of dark country rhythms of ‘Cowboys Will Kill You.’ Finishing off with the Jack Johnson styled ‘Dark Star,’ and you’re instinctively preparing yourself to send the album around for another listen.

I had absolutely no idea what to expect of President Roots, and, as is often the case in the absence of expectations for Australian music, I was blown out of the water with aural pleasantries. Sure, there’s not a lot of entirely original stuff going on here. There are shades of influences all across their genre bending folk-rock ditties, with etches of Bob Dylan, Paul Kelly, Wilco and the like all making their presence known in subtle sonic moments, but at no stage do you resent that as you make your way through the record. It’s not as if these artists are being ripped off, it resembles more of a ‘best of folk and country’ than anything else, which isn’t a bad thing at all.

 ‘Migration’ is a fantastic debut for a band that will surely have a few thousand extra sets of eyes fixed on their moves around the country. With a bit of luck, these guys will start growing through the cracks and start getting themselves heard – it would be an absolute tragedy for this album to escape the immense number of listeners that are sure to enjoy it. ‘Migration’ sits amongst debut Australian albums like The Beautiful Girls ‘Morning Sun’ and Mia Dyson’s ‘Cold Water’ as top starts to top careers. Of course, time will tell if it comes to fruition at all, but pending the release of a solid second album, I’m certain that President Roots have the ability to make a presence on the Australian music scene.

 If you fail to enjoy this collection of twelve tracks, then you’ve been lobotomised. President Roots have crafted a joyous musical occasion, scratched it into optical form, stuck it in a cardboard case and sent it to music stores country wide. Don’t miss it.

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