Frank Hoier & The Weber Brothers "Lovers & Dollars" (Independent 2008)

Frank Hoier evokes the spirit of Woodie Guthrie with his classic Americana album

Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Frank Hoier recorded his debut album with the rockabilly duo The Weber Brothers to produce a classic sounding Americana album that, frankly, pushes all the right buttons.

Hoier isn't doing anything that's not been done before. Think long, lonely roads, spending all your money on whisky and beer, you know the type of thing. But although there are cliché's aplenty here, it's not a case of being lazy, he's just tapping into the rich storytelling heritage that his genre offers.

And he does include a stellar anti-Bush/anti-war number worthy of the annals of Woody Guthrie. The track "Jesus Don't Give Tax Breaks to the Rich" is along the same lines as Cindy Lee Berryhill's 'When Did Jesus Become a Republican?", and made the Top 50 on Neil Young's anti-war website. Fact.

Catchy and scathing, it certainly drives the point home. Maybe George Bush Jr did more for cultivating the fringe arts than he intended. There's certainly been an avalanche of starkly brilliant protest songs coming from the States over the past few years.

Stylistically, Hoier really comes into his own with the stripped-down numbers. The bigger productions sound less genuine and he loses his grubby charm.

Nonetheless, Lovers & Dollars is a fab album; upbeat, interesting and hopelessly catchy. Not bad for a debut. Not bad at all…

Date review added:  Monday, November 10, 2008
Reviewer:  Sian Claire Owen
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  Artist website