MV & EE with The Golden Road - Gettin' Gone

Jack and Meg aren't the only boy-girl duo with a taste in countrified rock and blues. Hailing from Massachusetts, MV & EE are Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, who, with the assistance of band The Golden Road, have concocted an album of hollering Americana. It's definitely not refined, but it compensates with a single-minded authenticity and respect for rock of old. If you want to know influences, look no further than Neil Young's Southern Man: it's almost as if Valentine has studied this famous track in order to replicate the essence of Young's unpolished yet impassioned guitar playing. The ragged style works best on Hammer, where it acts as a superb foil for Elder's mournful vocals. The album drags in its mid-section, where MV & EE display an annoying tendency to prolong songs pointlessly beyond their natural end-point. But this is an album of true musicianship; certainly not Harvest, but essential listening for fans of rootsy guitar rock. [Nick Mitchell]