Dead Man Winter

Dead Man Winter are the side-project of Dave Simonett, lead vocalist of venerated Minnesotan bluegrass band Trampled by Turtles. Bright Lights is an album purported to be born of beer and whiskey-fuelled jams during a long, northern Minnesotan winter and no doubt this is exactly the sort of environment from which this album sprang. Every single track, with the exception of the mournfully beautiful "Where in the World Have you Been" and the album's titular last track is a pleasurably danceable ode to wide open spaces, partying in the dead of winter and missing some girl or another. For example, "Get Low" is unmistakably reminiscent of Lucinda Williams' "Joy" ― twangy and bratty. But "Joy" is a classic in American country and hearing "Get Low" for the first time will only make you want to go back and listen to Lucinda Williams. The tale end of the album features a series of happy, boot-stomping pop music, with "Cry For Help," "House of Glory," "New Orleans" (a sweet Trampled by Turtles original stripped of its banjo and sped up for some reason) and "Industrial Daybreak" all bleeding into one another. Simonett's clear voice and Ryan Young's fiddling give the album a fair bit of colour, but just as these songs were conceived in a room full of musicians staving off the cold with the help of alcohol, this full-length should be consumed in the same manner. You will certainly like it. Hell, you might even love it. But these songs would go over better live in a greasy little saloon on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere with a beer than through headphones. Something is missing when listening to this album alone.