When Ken Woods and The Old Blue Gang release an album, "Silent Spike," it's not so much an album as the sound of the horse riders of the Apocalypse coming for your soul. This seven-track, hour-long concept album is a soul-stirring tribute to the unsung "Railroad Chinese," whose labor, sacrifice, and resilience helped build the first transcontinental railroad across the United States. At a bit more than an hour, "Silent Spike" is a slow burn that is worth every second. It is a wake-up call, a profoundly American story told through deeply American music.
Epic in its sweep and intimate in its detail, "Silent Spike" is a filmic journey that follows the immigrant saga from the treacherous crossing to America, through the grisly odors of laying track, to the backstabbing and whirlwind of their arrival. It's a story, long buried under the noise of history and one now roaring to life with the band's uniquely American howl. Ken Woods' rouged, bramble-like voice, together with the band's loose, road-torn instrumentation, brings every story to life. The Old Blue Gang isn't after commercial comfort but after truth, and they smack it square in the kisser.
"Silent Spike" doesn't cut so much as slice across the American roots spectrum from hurting ballads to arm-waving folk-rock, from back-porch blues to gospel-tinged laments. Every song is a chapter, every note a nail hammered into the tracks of memory. Songs like "Sundown Town," a harrowing contemplation on fear and survival, and "Ride the Rails," a sweeping anthem of hope and endurance, underscore the album's capacity to both educate and inspire.
Epic in its sweep and intimate in its detail, "Silent Spike" is a filmic journey that follows the immigrant saga from the treacherous crossing to America, through the grisly odors of laying track, to the backstabbing and whirlwind of their arrival. It's a story, long buried under the noise of history and one now roaring to life with the band's uniquely American howl. Ken Woods' rouged, bramble-like voice, together with the band's loose, road-torn instrumentation, brings every story to life. The Old Blue Gang isn't after commercial comfort but after truth, and they smack it square in the kisser.
"Silent Spike" doesn't cut so much as slice across the American roots spectrum from hurting ballads to arm-waving folk-rock, from back-porch blues to gospel-tinged laments. Every song is a chapter, every note a nail hammered into the tracks of memory. Songs like "Sundown Town," a harrowing contemplation on fear and survival, and "Ride the Rails," a sweeping anthem of hope and endurance, underscore the album's capacity to both educate and inspire.
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