The Clumsy Lovers – Smart Kid

There’s no law that says bands with banjos, mandolins, fiddles and acoustic guitars have to sing about their Appalachian homes or even play country music at all. Bluegrass, the creation of a genius named Bill Monroe, was after all an amalgam of old-time country and the jazz that was America’s popular music in the 1940s. Canada’s Clumsy Lovers, best known for their live shows, had an original idea: For their major-label debut (after six indies) why not graft bassist Chris Jonat’s “Lola-era Kinks by way of Elvis Costello” songs onto an Americana foundation? The hybridization works well, and the unplugged racket results in a surprisingly thick mix. This stuff isn’t sleepy; it rocks, and even features snappy instrumental breaks borrowed from traditional tunes. So the operation was successful and the patient survived, but there’s still the question of Jonat’s sorta-derivative songs. The best of them—like “People I’ve been Meaning to Thank”—settle in nicely, but others are merely professional without hitting you in the solar plexus. Trevor Rogers’ voice gets a bit monotonous after a while, so it’s good to hear ace fiddle player Andrea Lewis taking the microphone once in a while. The Clumsy Lovers are worth watching, even when they fumble the romantic bits.