Massy Ferguson

You know only good things can come from a band that named itself after a farm-equipment company. But Seattle's Massy Ferguson is not as hayseed as you'd expect. Their songs are steeped in the classic Americana of Uncle Tupelo, the Jayhawks, and the Backsliders. Rich with imagery of highways, truck-stop coffee, whiskey and bad motels, Massy Ferguson make cinematic roots music about the blue-collar aspects of our nation. This is what Jay Farrar might sound like without his thesaurus. Their sound is Americana that leans more toward rock than country. Think Drive-By Truckers or some combination of Son Volt and The Hold Steady. Think Springsteen's "Greetings From Asbury Park" or "Nebraska." Those influences have also helped them to land gigs at festivals and clubs in Australia, Iceland, Germany, England and Mexico. If all that means Massy Ferguson is derivative, well, that's partly true. It doesn't really matter, though, because the songs are just plain good. And the lyrics are full of enough detail and imagery that you start to forget any objections. Massy Ferguson is a bar band in the best sense -- not a band relegated to bars because it will never rise higher, but a band that plays music perfectly suited to dark, crowded rooms in which there's at least a possibility of a beer glass smashing against a wall. Their songs, filled with barflies, broken hearts and doomed late-night romance, would sound pretty good anywhere, though.