DIRT RIVER RADIO – BEER BOTTLE POETRY
Not since Mark Seymour took to the sweat soaked beer barns of Australia in a blue singlet and sang, “You don’t make me feel like a woman anymore,” have we heard such an eloquent treatise on the Australian male as put forth by Dirt River Radio in The Boys in the Public Bar. “And the boys in the public bar say/ La, la, la, la something about football/ La, la, la, la something about beer / La, la, la, la they laugh so loudly / So the women can’t tell that the’re riddle with fear”. Seldom has a final line cut so deeply to the bone. Alongside All My Friends, a piano lament for the girl who has left, and the “fucked up” mates who are the still the best mates one can have (as long as you are, “Buying the next beer”), these two songs make the centre-piece of Beer Bottle Poetry. Sure there are another eight good to excellent tunes here, and many will love the rock-a-billy romp of Chase the Sun, or the slow blues burn of American Beer, but Public Bar and All My Friends are two shinning gems that sit so well side by side you cant help coming back to them time and time again. If you like you blues with roots, your rock with the grit still attached, this is a no-brainer. This is the best Australian album of the year.
**** 1/2
