Album Review: Supersuckers 'Holdin' The Bag'

Over the past 25 years the Supersuckers (Eddie Spaghetti, guitarist Marty Chandler and drummer Chris Von Streicher) have released more than twenty albums and while front man Spaghetti receives treatment for Stage 3 throat cancer, the self-proclaimed “Greatest Rock n' Roll Band in The World” will release their new country album Holdin’ The Bag on October 16th via Acetate Records. The eleven track collection, on which they are joined by Asleep at The Wheel fiddler Jason Roberts, Jeff Pinkus of Butthole Surfers, Jesse Dayton and Mickey Raphael, is an in your face good time with well-crafted, clever lyrics and inescapable melodies.

That emotive harmonica opens the record on a melancholy, lonesome note as he sings on "Holdin' The Bag," “It is what it is/There ain’t much else we can do….And they might not see me struggling/They won’t see me wave the white flag, but the thing I find befuddling I’m left holdin’ the bag.”

The tempo picks up on the humorous honky-tonk tune “This Life....With You,” on which they are joined by Hayes Carll singing about how life would be better without another. “Cause sharing sucks.” That’s followed by the wonderfully rootsy “High & Outside,” the shuffling “I Do What I Can” (To Get By) and the punky country of “Shimmy & Shake.” There’s the dangerous undertones of “Man On A Mission,” the ballsy “Let’s Bounce” and the rollicking “Jibber Jabber” where he sings “You’re like an imported car so hard to maintain……You’re like the perfect restroom woman so hard to keep clean.”

They’re joined by Lydia Loveless on the desolate “I Can’t Cry” with beer in hand choral sing along “That’s How It Gets Done,” and an updated take on “All My Rowdy Friends” rounding out the album. “Georgia On A Fast Train,” an exuberant cover of the Billy Joe Shaver tune will be included as a bonus track on the vinyl edition.

Oft times brawny, bold, fun and cheeky, with a take no prisoners approach, the heart of Holdin’ The Bag is the honesty in it’s true to life, relatable lyrics. Get ya some.

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