Scroat Belly: Daddy's Farm

If the new alternative-country/cowpunk music being championed by spunky little labels like Bloodshot and Diesel Only is your thing, then Scroat Belly is your thing with extra gravy. Daddy's Farm judders along with a damn near perfect country 'lectric sound from the guitar, a honky-tonk backbeat like a crate full of fighting cocks, and best of all, everyone in the band's tendency to all sing at once. Musically, Scroat Belly walks that line—in "I Loved Her," it even shows off a borrowed Johnny Cash trick by starting slow and steadily picking up tempo until it's almost crippling. If the band has a weak spot, it's only in trying too hard lyrically: Every one of the album's 16 tracks bluntly invokes one of country's great symbols, like pistols or cowboys or, especially, drinkin'. It's the exquisite musicianship that keeps the whole thing from descending into parody, but sometimes, on songs like "Whiskey-Drinkin' SOB," it's mighty close. Once these boys learn to talk like the Nashville folks they obviously love, they'll be dead-bang perfect.