Label: Cass Records/V2

Release Date:

Band site: blanchemusic.com

Blanche - If We Can't Trust Doctors...
Dan MacIntosh

Blanche is not so much alt.country, as it is a throwback to old-fashioned musical values and homespun thinking. Listening to “If We Can’t Trust Doctors…” conjures up visions of some old hick who has been transplanted from the Dust Bowl days, and placed smack dab in the middle of modern day New York City. And boy does he look confused!

Dan John Miller vocalizes the majority of these sentiments, but he’s also ably assisted by Tracee Mae Miller in many places. On a few tracks, these two singers trade verses almost exactly the same way George Jones and Tammy Wynette used to do it. The overall sound is mainly folk and traditional country, with plenty of banjo, pedal steel guitar and twangy vocals thrown in to create its winning mixture. But even if you’re not a transplanted hick, or already a country music fan, don’t let this description of its sound deter you from checking it out. These songs are just so darn good.

This group is from the same Detroit breeding ground that also produced The White Stripes, and Jack White even takes a guitar solo on the track “Who’s to Say…” here. But except for Miller’s Nick Cave-like angry vocals on “Jack On Fire,” there’s very little contained within that sounds anything like rock & roll. At the very end of the CD, there’s a hidden cover of Van Halen’s “Runnin’ with the Devil,” but it is played in waltz time, has added record pop sound effects, and is ultimately almost unrecognizable. It’s by no means David Lee Roth-y, that’s for sure.

For Blanche, the Great Depression is internal, not external. A good example of these unhappy feelings is expressed through a track called “The Hopeless Waltz.” “Like a slot machine/Hope lets you win/but just enough to keep you coming back again.” Whether it’s mistrust of a mate (“Do You Trust Me?”), or mistrust of the world’s institutions in general, which is discussed through “Superstition,” there’s sure a whole lot of nervous energy expended through these songs.

With its marriage of old time country and persistent edginess, Blanche is almost like Woody Allan gone country. It’s a little strange, yes, but it’s also strangely appealing, too.

posted 02.25.05

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