Two Irishmen, an Englishman and an American walk into a bar in Madrid.
This is not a joke but the punch line is that these four international 'madrilenos' (Garrett Wall, Dave Mooney, Howard Brown and Robbie K. Jones) decided to form a band back in 2011. They named themselves after the maintenance teams of New York's subway system but their music is a long way from the underground and is best suited for open air parties.
The foursome resolved to "create a unique brand of acoustic music" and when it came to deciding what genre, they deliberately left things loose. In consequence, they throw a number of styles into the mix for a heady cocktail that includes folk, Latino, Americana, bluegrass and pop. There are 4-part harmonies, acoustic guitar, ukulele, banjo, mandolin, bass, cajón, trumpet and kitchen sink.
This is their fourth album and was recorded in Madrid at Playground Studios with co-producer Germán Gutiérrez.
The Kansas connection follows an appearance in the city at Folk Alliance International where they met The Barefoot Movement. This resulted in them teaming up with this bluegrass group for the show stopping Gonna Get My Name and presumably inspired the composition A Lucky Man In Kansas.
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The unapologetic good time music is sometimes at odds with the lyrical content; for instance, Dead To Rights is best described as a party song about a corpse and My Big Payday includes a series of desperate pleas for cash.
But there are a fair share of banalities too. The single Born In Love includes pedestrian lines like "come on over, its alright, bring your radio too" and we are reminded that "love can fade like the brightest of lights" on Long Gone.
Probably, few will be too fussed over the words anyway as this is music tailor made for dancing like crazy to at festivals; or for 'livin' la vida loca' as they say in Spain.
Track Dogs' website
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