The Lonesome Brothers are Jim Armenti, Tom Shea and Ray Mason, (Shea is the guitarist from the Ray Mason Band.) With songs by Jim and Ray, everybody gets to sing. From the "truck-driving choogle" guitar line that starts off "Crossing With The Cookoo" to the rootsy strummer of "The Drinking Side", Pony Tales really satisfies. And those are just the first two songs! All the way down to the disc's acoustic guitar and mandolin closer "I'll Be Drinking In My Dreams", the Lonesome Brothers take us along on another ride through the darker sides of Americana. With the addition of Shea (Scud Mountain Boys) to the line-up, guests Doug Beaumier (pedal steel and dobro) and Jim Weeks (keys, harmonica & percussion) give added color to this terrific mix. After 11 years and four releases Armenti and Mason are masters of counter balancing the darkness with songs that are filled with back-porch wisdom and the rural warmth that has been a staple of The Lonesome Brothers sound.
Lonesome Brothers
SPINS/BERKSHIRE EAGLE
Pony Tales (Captivating Music)
A new album from the Lonesome Brothers is always a reason to kick back, relax and have yourself a laid-back party. The very spirit of American roots music lives and breathes through the dual singer-songwriter team of Jim Armenti and Ray Mason.
Songs include the Neil Young-style, guitar- and bass-fueled country-rock of "Old Rails Rust," the new-wave pop of "Queen of Where I Go," the heavy twang of "Don't You Go," the Southern blues of "Dumbstruck at the Dumpster," and the classic country sound of dobro and pedal-steel drenched tunes like "Almost Had You" and "Made of Stone." An Americana treasure.
SETH ROGOVOY
KEVIN GUTTING
The Lonesome Brothers - Ray Mason, left, Tom Shea and Jim Armenti, shown here in downtown Northampton - have just issued their fourth CD, "Pony Tales." All 13 songs on the disc were written by Mason and Armenti.
Thursday, November 21, 2002 -- If you concentrated only on the lyrics of "Pony Tales," the s' latest CD, you might get the impression they lament missed opportunities and forlorn love throughout the 13-song collection. Then you hear the music, a bright, unassuming mix of guitar, shuffling drums and solid bass with straightforward, unapologetic vocals singing breezy, upturned melodies, and the lyrics take on deeper meaning. Sure, the words could be read as sad and reminiscent, and the group leaders are the first to say that at their age, like anybody, they have some things to ponder. But they've also been around long enough, they might say, to look back on life's twists with whimsy and to appreciate where they are now despite younger setbacks.
Jim Armenti, the band's co-leader with Ray Mason, says his lyrics, while not always literal, are based on experience. "I'm not good at fiction per se," says Armenti, who wrote half the songs on "Pony Tales," sings his songs on the album and plays guitar and mandolin. "I don't generally invent from scratch. I have to know what I'm writing about. Writing my stuff is like pulling teeth for me. I'm very serious when I write."
"Pony Tales" is the Lonesome Brothers' fourth CD since the Valley-based band loosely formed in 1986. The mainstay duo of Armenti and bassist/vocalist Mason, who write all the songs, has teamed with various support musicians. On "Pony Tales," Tom Shea plays drums and mandolin and sings some background vocals. Doug Beaumier contributes some tasteful pedal steel guitar and dobro lines.
While he's serious about the music, Armenti says it's fun to write songs and have people hear them. That's the sentiment of "Pony Tales": fun, self-amused playfulness that steps back and takes a half-grinning look at life and hard times that anybody can relate to.
It helps that the album is crammed with smooth, infectious melodies and rhythms that subtly inspire movement and attention. The songs, seemingly simple at first, sneak up and insist you listen. Before long, you might find yourself skipping back for a particularly catchy phrase, like the "She was a child of luck, he was the son of chance/They met one night at the Riverfest Dance" that begins Armenti's tune "Sure Looks Pretty."
Other tunes, like Mason's "Gail Table for One" - inspired during a gig at Bishop's Lounge in Northampton - offer a double-sided inspection of loneliness that characterizes much of the Lonesome Brothers' music. "People say there's nothing wrong with it," Mason sings, "and you should learn to be alone ... Where's the fun in a single?"
And on tunes such as Armenti's "Don't You Go," the wonderful, driving guitar work and soothing country shuffle demand movement to the beat. Though Armenti and Mason alternate their tunes and vocal duties on the CD, their writing styles and instrumental collaborations are well-matched in a seamless succession of songs.
In addition to the easygoing music, the relatable lyrics and virtuoso instrumentation, one of the main attractions of the Lonesome Brothers' music, exemplified on "Pony Tales," is honesty. Their music is what it is, raw at times and freshly unsophisticated, but never pretending to be anything else. It's certain and exposed, offering occasional flaws that fit perfectly and without which the musical package would be compromised.
Even if nobody bought or listened to the Lonesome Brothers (which is not the case), you get the feeling from "Pony Tales" they'd be doing it anyway, making music to make music. That's one of their most appealing characteristics.
"It's not like we're trying to be any big thing," says Mason, who has been performing for more than three decades and plays 150 gigs a year. "We're just trying to write good songs and keep doing what we're doing. I just keep going out and playing them. It's what I love to do."
By ERIC SEAN WELD
Northeast Performer
Lonesome Brothers - Swamptown Girl
Reviewer -captain black - 2001
What is it about a song or album that makes it a hit? Well you can start with the feel of the record, and the Lonesome Brothers got feelings for days! Swamptown Girl, the new album by the Lonesome Brothers, is an absolutely gorgeous record, filled with expressive lyrics and songs like "Early in the Spring," where a Hemmingway like mood is created through lyrics like "Im finishing this crossword you started years ago and it's lonely at this table watching the rain" creating a mood of solace and anticipation to this unfolding musical story. The lonesome brothers on "Early in the spring" send you off on a journey guided by sadness looking for inspiration and continue this reflective journey on songs like "Reckless World" accompanied by tear filled steel pedaled guitars and those home on the prairie like vocals got me all set to throw on some headphones and wait for the coyotes to start cackling... The title track itself "Swamptown Girl" is like turning on a happy switch with that irresistible hoe-down stomping country dance song. And churn up that rock organ on "Never Owned"! The production is set accordingly, creating an even flow throughout the record - nothing too harsh or out of context. Producer Jim weeks has done a fine job of balancing and deserves mention so If you're a rockabilly or alternative-country fan, or just a lover of great music, buy this record. Swamptown Girl is a can't-miss hit if properly exposed. Anyone can appreciate an album like this, Ray Mason and company got it going on in this one!
Yahoo Rock and Pop-amuZnet News
The Lonesome Brothers Release Third Album
By Alex Green - 2001
Captivating Records has just announced the imminent release of Swamptown Girl, the third long player from Boston's Lonesome Brothers. The follow-up to 1999's Diesel Therapy, Swamptown Girl features the band's longtime line up of Ray Mason (vocals, bass, acoustic guitar), Jim Armenti (vocals, guitar, mandolin, accordion), and Bob Grant ( drums, percussion). Equal parts alternative country swagger, wistful folk, and breezy rock, Mason thinks the Lonesome Brothers' confluence of different musical genres is the key to the band's success. "It's rootsy, no doubt about it," he says, but it has a lot of variations--it's an eclectic mix of styles. One track is the rockiest thing we've done, and one song even has an organ. Although some people would be quick to lump the Lonesome Brothers into the alternative country milieu, the band has more dimensions than that. From the wist- ful "Reckless World," a quiet and moving take on Don Quixote to the grinding bliss of "Pile Of Paper," that effortlessly summons Neil Young, to the lusty funk of the title track, Swamptown Girl is a rootsy triumph. As for being quickly labeled alternative country, Mason doesn't mind at all: "It's funny," he says, we grew up on stuff that would now be considered alternative country like The Band and Buffalo Springfield." As for how the band has progressed since its inception in 1986, Mason says: I'd like to think its better than the other two." And if he had to define the Lonesome Brothers' sound? "Hick rock," Mason laughs, "that sounds like diesel." (For more information on The Lonesome Brothers, write the band at: 9 Depot Road, Haydenville, MA 01039)
MUSIC REVUE MAGAZINE (Charlemont, MA)
February - March - 2001
By Paul Burton
Swamptown Girl picks up where the Lonesome Brothers' last CD, Diesel Therapy, left off. The Bros combine the best elements of American music with the raw honesty of their natural and totally believable lyrics. There's real poetry here in the writing of Ray Mason and Jim Armenti that evokes the best of Hank Williams or Chuck Berry---a down home conversational style that tells a story with vivid insight into the human condition.
Musically the album has touches of Beggars Banquet-era Stones on Armenti's "Pile of Paper," the earthiness of The Band on Mason's "Pass the Wrench" and "Early in the Spring" and laid back country blues on Armenti's "Took Me For A Ride." Armenti's "Chains" is a quick C & W two-step with great pedal steel work from Doug Beaumier. Armenti proves himself to be a worthy equal to Mason as a master of metaphor on this bitter breakup tale with lines like, "You even left your chans behind." His weary, acoustic waltz "Reckless World" is simply a masterpiece.
Mason's contributions are stellar as usual with great lines like "It's early in the spring, it's not the time it used to be....I'm still fillin' your prescription" ("Early in the Spring") and deceptively simple bass lines that lock in with drummer bob Grant.
Swamptown Girl has smart, unpretentious writing, solid musicianship, inspired
singing, and is very well produced. Guaranteed to bring peace of mind to
troubled souls.
RELIX - Vol 27 #24
AUGUST/2000
If you enjoy county-rock with a roots-rock twist, Diesel Therapy (Tar Hut),the second album from the Lonesome Brothers, is a must. This Massachusetts-based trio has an unpretentious and vigorous sound. The baker's dozen songs are hook-laden, but never overly smooth. The band's ragged approach is somewhat akin to Neil Young and Crazy Horse, which is most evident in "Don't Make Me a Memory", and "Remember to Forget". the album is full of great songs-of special note are the excellent title cut and the moody "Every Goodbye". Special note should be made of the pedal and lap steel playing of guest Doug Beaumier, as it is an essential ingredient.
Mick Skidmore
APRIL 24, 2000
DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE
....they didn't win but they had a great time nevertheless-which was the main goal.On Saturday night, the local country-rock band the Lonesome Brothers....performed for a national audience on " A Prairie Home Companion," the popular public radio show hosted by Garrison Keillor.As part of the show's annual "talent from Towns under 2000"contest, the band played at New York City's Town Hall competing with five other groups from towns with a populationunder 2000. Armenti lives in Westhampton, which numbers a little over 1500.The winning performer was Leilani Clark an 11-year-oldpop/gospel singer from Florida. But Mason said he and his bandmates didn't feel any regret at not finishing first. The whole experience, he said, "...was totally positive. It couldn't have been better. We had a blast meeting Garrisonand the other bands, the sound system was great...it was just a lot of fun...."Saturday's gig was their biggest ever: An in-house audience of 1500 people, plus another 2.5 million across the country listening to the show on radio.
Steve Pfarrer
LONESOME BROTHERS Songwriter's Monthly January, 2000
DIESEL THERAPY (Tar Hut Records)
These "brothers" work well together. The shining quality of this album is its honesty. The music rings true and the artists put a lot of care into making it sound just right. One of the songs to listen for is the up-tempo track full of cleverness called "All Jacked Up." Honest fun.
A BROTHERS' KEEPER VALLEY ADVOCATE NOV 4-10 1999
THE LONESOME BROTHERS DIESEL THERAPY (Tar Hut): Why weren't the Lonesome Brothers asked to be on the most recent Gram Parsons tribute? Sure, they tend more toward rock than rusticity and favor ragged bar-band romps to alt.country artifice but few bands play roots music with as much passion and as little pretension as the Western Mass trio of Jim Armenti, Ray Mason and Bob Grant. Produced by local sonic guru Jim Weeks, Diesel Therapy, the band's second full-length album, establishes that the best of the alternative country genre boils down to quality songwriting, an area in which The Bros. need little help, boasting not one but two able tune smiths in Armenti and Mason.
Armenti's the more country of the two (the title track, a song about the practice of moving problematic inmates from town to town out of reach of family and friends, is a slice of pure Americana worthy of Johnny Cash). Mason's the pure popster given to inflections of soul. With help from pedal steel player Doug Beaumier and No Depression favorite Cheri Knight, Diesel Therapy suggests a less bitter Bottle Rockets or The Band if they had recorded in Nashville. Proof that you don;t have to go to Whiskeytown to find classic country-rock.
* * *1/2 Michael Strohl
THE LONESOME BROTHERS MUSIC REVUE Oct.1999
DIESEL THERAPY
Tar Hut Records
Fans of great songs and excellent musicianship will be happy to find that there is now another band on the scene that can give the Ray Mason Band a run for the money as the best local roots-rock outfit. Not surprisingly, that band-the Lonesome Brothers-also features Ray and his instant classic songs.
Mason shares songwriting duties on "Diesel Therapy" with multi-instrumentalist Jim Armenti, who turns out to be not just a fabulous and tasty guitar picker but a pretty great songwriter in his own right. But Armenti doesn't just play Lennon do Mason's McCartney, more Robbie Robertson to Ray's Rick Danko-many of the songs have that timeless, tried and true quality associated with The Band in its hey-day.
This is another CD, like Mason's "Castanets," that is full of good-to great songs, like Armenti's rootsy and raw "Going Blind" and "Diesel Therapy, with great slide guitar work and an Americana-on -the-edge vibe. Armenti proves to be an able poet as well on the CD's real standout cut, "Every Goodbye", singing "I know what it's like to see a life goin' down, like gravel in a grave one grain at a time....every goodbye ain't gone, I hope it's true, countin' out days, keeping' only a few..." Armenti's countrified Strat blends with Jim Week' cello to underscore the sad and haunting story.
Mason again displays an incredible ability to turn simple everyday phrases into memorable and universal songs: "I drew a breath as long as the road from Richmond to Pensacola. You know my good friend Charles, he couldn't get up to say I told ya," he sings on "Remember to Forget," with its classic chorus, "And it's always here I can't recall, right smack dab drawin' a blank, something's near but I can't seem to reach it-I gotta remember to forget."
On the rollicking "Water Off a Duck", Ray reminds us that , "We can say what we want, and do what we do, but we're all gonna bend when they turn that screw."
All the songs on "Diesel Therapy" sound great, and not just because of the great singing, Mason's simple but strong bass playing, Armenti's virtuoso guitar chops and drummer Bob Grant's solid grooves. The production and mastering, by engineer Jim Weeks and Zeke Fiddler of Northampton's Monkeyhouse is clear and strong. The additional contributions of guest musicians like vocalist Cheri Knight on "Every Goodbye", pedal steel player Doug Beaumier on "All Jacked Up," and Weeks' piano on "Water off Duck" make this CD eminently enjoyable.
DREAD FURY
AMPLIFIER
Ray Mason has always had a soft spot for country harmonies and steel guitars. But when the Northampton MA legend gets together with his Westhampton buddies, Jim Armenti and Bob Grant as the Lonesome Brothers, you can almost smell the hay in the barn and feel the rattle of that rusty old pickup underneath you. Mason and Armenti are both great pop songwriters in their own right, and though they don't write together, they compliment each other's songs quite nicely. Mason's bass anchors Armenti's bubbling picking and crunchy chord bashing on songs like "Going Blind" and "Diesel Therapy." Both voices are distinct-Mason's pleading tenor and Armenti's gritty drawl. Still, somehow, each manages to blend into the background when needed, or come to the forefront and carry the song. Compare two of the ballads-Mason's "Remember to Forget" and Armenti's "Every Goodbye" and it's easy to see the emotional breadth the band i capable of. "The Big Shakedown" is as viable as any song The Band ever committed to tape. With a capable supporting cast adding pedal and lap steel, and keyboards, and occasional strings, the Lonesome Brothers move comfortably from country tear jerk to bar boogie. Diesel Therapy is a fine album that deserves to break out of its regional niche in western Massachusetts.
Nick A. Zaino III
NO DEPRESSION
Lonesome Brothers/Diesel Therapy (Tar Hut)
Seasoned musicians who have played together for 11 years, the Lonesome Brothers clearly know their stuff. In our cold, cruel, post-vinyl world, their distinctive warmth offers a welcome respite from so many bands that confuse digital perfection with a good-sounding recording. On Diesel Therapy, their second release on Tar Hut, this western Massachusetts trio winds its way through 13 well-crafted songs of country-tinged rock with considerable skill and an unflagging commitment to "feel," making even the weaker tunes worth a second listen.
Guitarist Jim Armenti and bassist Ray Mason adeptly trade off songwriting and lead vocal duties, Bob Grant's steady drumming provides the anchor, and a cast of talented friends -- including Cheri Knight -- add tasteful layers of pedal steel, cello, keyboard and backing vocals. From the sticky guitar hook of the opening track "Going Blind" through the rollicking, solo-filled closer "What I Want," the Lonesome Brothers deliver the down-home goods with songs that alternately evoke NRBQ's bar-band energy ("Lucinda") and the laid-back looseness of American Beauty-era Grateful Dead ("Remember To Forget").
The fifth track, "Every Goodbye", a plaintive ballad underpinned by cello and Knight's reedy vocals, leads off the album's strongest songwriting stretch, from the blissfully straightforward rocker "Water Off A Duck," to the funky backwater groove of "Big Shakedown", to "Don't Make Me A Memory", a pleading two-step laced with electric guitar and sweet pedal steel.
-Carolyn Wennblom
AUDIOGALAXY
The Lonesome BrothersPost Country - One of Massachusetts's best-kept secrets, the Lonesome Brothers make wonderfully timeless American music: a seamless blend of country and rock played by a trio of musicians with the chops to move from upbeat barn-burning jams to slow, gentle ballads. Like The Band and Uncle Tupelo, the Lonesome Brothers make country music rock and rock music twang.
Bassist Ray Mason and guitarist Jim Armenti have been playing music together in variety of bands for over 11 years. Both talented songwriters and pickers, they sound at home writing and playing in numerous styles. These guys deliver satisfying Sun Records style rockabilly, bouncy Western Swing, and electric Neil Young type rock.
But where the Lonesome Brothers really shine is on their slow countrified ballads. Acoustic arrangements filled with soaring pedal steel, lilting mandolin and drummer Bob Grant's simple backbeat make these tunes the standouts on both of the band's records. "Every Goodbye" from the Diesel Therapy album is a haunting gem augmented by the majestic harmony vocals of Cheri Knight. Another ballad, the Armenti penned "All Around You," from the band's self-titled release has an incredible warmth and sincerity that only the best songwriters can convey.
Solid production and contributions from guest musicians like vocalist Cheri Knight, pedal steel player Doug Beaumier and cellist Jim Weeksmake the Lonesome Brothers releases abundantly enjoyable. Sometimes it's good to be "lonesome." --
Eric Zappa
LONESOME BROTHERS V MAG Oct '99
DIESEL THERAPY
TAR HUT RECORDS
THE Lonesome Brothers are the hottest band of brothers not named Allman or Neville. The Northampton-based quintet features local legends Ray Mason on bass and Jim Armenti on guitar and mandolin, with Bob Grant on drums, Doug Beaumier on Pedal steel and Jim Weeks on guitar and keyboards. Armenti and Mason-brothers in spirit only-have been rocking audiences up and down the East Coast for longer than anyone can remember. If you asked an industry suit what genre these guys inhabit he would say alt/country, but that would only be part of the story. The fact is, when the Brothers get goin, they rock with the intensity of Poco or Buffalo Springfield.
Diesel Therapy, the group's second CD, picks up where the first one left off, with stellar, riff-laden sons and killer ballads. Mason And Armenti are both prolific songwriters. and the disc features alternating contributions from each. The opening cut, "Going Blind", is classic Armenti; searing, sweet riffs, massive, steady grooves and wry, folksy lyrics. The next cut, "Remember to forget" is classic world-weary Mason/ Here as elsewhere, it's Mason's singing that stands out; his voice is soulful, funny and thoroughly human, a vast over the bland crap that you hear on the Country Channel or MTV.
The title cut is a monumental piece of songwriting. Diesel Therapy is what happens to guys in prison who file appeals or are a pain in the ass. In the dead of night they are hustled aboard prison buses and shipped off the next institution, ad infinitum, out of reach of family members and friends. Not many songs are dedicated to prisoners there days; this one is a hook-laden cruncher that rocks as hard as anything remotely calling itself country. With humor and without pretensions, it sticks up for guys who are getting fucked over behind bars. The Brothers are like that; they have a fine and grizzled populist spirit and have come up with the best prison song since the heyday of Johnny Cash.
"All Jacked Up," penned by Mason, is and amphetamine-edged, pile driver of a song that would have done Canned Heat proud. It features some serious picking by Armenti over layers of Beaumier's sweet-sounding pedal steel. "Why you want to set yourself on fire?" Mason croons. "She won't take you back when you're all jacked up/' Fine street wisdom from one of the uncrowned kings of barroom rock.
"Every Goodbye" is an Armenti ballad with great backing vocals from another local hero, Cheri Knight. "Don't Make Me a Memory" is another fine ballad by Mason. More gems: Mason's "Digging Too Deep<" a fast-as quick-silver country rocker, and "Elly Mae's Party," one of my favorite songs on the disc. It's a sweet, bluesy number with a warm nostalgic feel that is reminiscent of Dave Davies.
As excellent as Diesel Therapy is, it doesn't begin to suggest how good the Brothers are live. Sometimes Armenti, Mason and Grant perform as a trio, and I swear there are moments when they're as much Cream as country. The Brothers are serious players and they are perfectly capable of stepping it up several notches when things get nice and sweaty. Armenti is a multi-instumentalist who is accomplished in many styles of playing; Mason cut his teethe in epic jams as a member of the legendary Signal in the early 80's. Take my word for i, the Brothers can rock; comparisons with Buffalo Springfield and Poco don't come cheap.
DAVE BIEDERMAN
THE BOSTON PHOENIX
HIGH LONESOMES. At one time or another, it seems, the Lonesome Brothers' Jim Armenti and Ray Mason (the trio also includes drummer Bob Grant) have played with just about every musician in New England. Back before he was a Scud Mountain Boy, for instance, Joe Pernice took guitar lessons from Armenti (who also moonlights on clarinet in a klezmer band!). Years later, the Scuds opened for Mason's other project, the Ray Mason Band, at the long extinct Sheehan's Cafe in Northampton. Since then, several of the Scuds have popped up in Mason's band. If music historian/illustrator Pete Frame ever endeavored to assemble one of his rock family trees charting everyone who;s crossed paths with the Lonesomes, there'd be quite a few branches on the old maple.
"It's all interchangeable," jokes Mason, who's seated with Armenti at a table in the band's usual haunt, the Bay State Restaurant & Bar in Northampton. Moment before, Armenti and Mason (who's clad in the same Blood Oranges T-shirt he wears on the inside cover photo of the Lonesomes' new album, Diesel Therapy, out on Tar Hut Records) were watching Wheel of Fortune on TV, trying to figure out the appeal of Vanna White. "She gets to touch the letters, " dead pans Armenti. "That's why she's famous." The Lonesome Brothers may never be as famous as Vanna White, but they already boast a legacy a good deal more substantive than that of Pat Sajak's sidekick.
On Diesel Therapy , the Lonesomes build on the rural warmth and back-porch wisdom that made their self-titled 1997 debut (also on Tar Hut) such a resonant example of great roots-pop songwriting. The tracks run the gamut of what the Lonesomes facetiously call their "hick rock" approach, from Mason's Rick Danko-ish vocal turn on the pedal-steel-soaked plea "Don't Make Me a Memory." to the gut bucket, hillbilly groove of Armenti's "Big Shakedown." You could compare shaggy, rough-and-tumble ravers like Armenti's "Going Blind" or Mason's "All Jacked Up" to the work of insurgent-country darlings such as Whiskeytown, the Bottle Rockets, and the Old 97's-except for the fact that the Lonesomes have been playing this stuff since before the musicians in those bands were in high school.
"Jim and I grew up in the '60's and on bands like Buffalo Springfield, and they were all doing country-oriented stuff, so I've never thought of it as a new thing," says Mason. "But No Depression is a good thing. It's about music based around song-writing-which I like-and a lot of the people who are involved in that scene are definitely some really good songwriters."
As a guy who last year inspired a tribute disc called It's Heartbreak That Sells (Tar Hut), Mason knows about such things. On the new album, he continues in the same vein. He's quick to credit Armenti's talent as a composer, too. "Jim's a better songwriter than I am," he says. "So it gives me something to strive for."
The sessions for Diesel Therapy were done in a few idea-and-intuition-flushed days at "Cloud Cuckooland"---otherwise known as producer Jim Weeks' Northampton apartment. Pedal and lap-steel specialist Doug Beaumier stopped by, as did ex-Blood Oranges bassist-singer Cheri Knight. And Weeks, a master tinkerer with a keen ear for detail, added judicious touches of cello, harp, and keyboards. And that was pretty much it.
"If something feels good, you don't go back and keep doing it," says Mason. "I like the Dylan kind of approach, where the guys in the band would say, 'okay, we learned the song, we're ready to record,' and Dylan would say, 'No, you're done.' If you listen to Highway 61 , the guitars are really out of tune, but it was perfect for the record. It would not be the same record if you took that out of there. It's like the Stones' December's Children , where you had these wicked out-of-tune 12-strings clashing with the harpsichord, and it's so off . But so off that it's on." Or, says Armenti with a laugh, "to use Jim Weeks favorite phrase, 'You're out of tune. But in a good way.'"
By Jonathan Perry