Search - Luther Wright & The Wrongs, Wrongs :: Guitar Pickin Martyrs

Based in Kingston, Ontario, Luther Wright & the Wrongs hit on a generally well-received gimmick for their third album, Rebuild the Wall, re-casting Pink Floyd?s prog-rock classic as a hillbilly suite. As a follow-up, Guitar Pickin? Martyrs returns to more familiar territory, offering 12 alt-country originals plus a cover of Bill Monroe?s "It?s Mighty Dark to Travel." Musically, the band members remain true to their pre-countrypolitan roots, but lyrically they?re too callow for their own good, mostly alternating between junior-college sophistication ("Devious Dissembler") and frat-boy humor ("Broken Fuckin? Heart"). Unlike the Waco Brothers, who take a genuine love of vintage country and add a heavy shot of Brit expatriate wit, the Wrongs layer their music with three coats of protective irony. Which means that no matter how many steel guitars, banjos, or fiddles they use, Luther Wright and his Wrongs owe more to the Barenaked Ladies than the true king of hillbilly music, Hank Williams Sr. ----Keith Moerer