Amigo throws East Texas drinking music into a blender with more modern hippie influences and pours out its debut album, My Clouds , forging its own sound in a new school of Southern rock. The Charlotte band sings about the best and worst of times with both innocent and omniscient perspectives, while creating a back yard grill-out atmosphere.
The album starts off with a bang with “Where Have All the Bad Times Gone (To)?” and “(Miss You) Every Day That You Are Gone,” which are catchy beer clinking tunes. The latter features backing saxophones, which is a unique combination with winding steel guitar.
The record slos down with “Best Laid Plans,” a song about life’s paradox: things can be so great one day and terrible the next. The song, attempts to cope with an unresponsive God. “A Murder of Crows Outside” continues to slow the album down with steel guitar playing, before reaching its lowest point in “Old Testaments and Nail Bombs.”
“Jud Blood” is the turn of the album and sounds like the light at the end of the tunnel. “Gospel Ship (Just in Case),” is a response to “Old Testaments,” and returns the album to the original up-beat tempo established in the first few tracks. The final three songs follow suit with this pace to exit the album on a crescendo of good vibes.
This bonfire record may leave listeners with a beard and thick Southern accent. Amigo is certainly a band to watch in the Southern rock scene, as it has proved with a single album it’s a force to be reckoned with.
