A required tetrospective of the adopted Madridēnos, the track record of these dogs predating any “discovery” by Knightley and Beer, with a fair few newies thrown in too, for better than good measure.

Release Date: 25th April 2025

Label : Monde Green Records

Format : CD / vinyl / digital

Feet on the street and the stage

Anyone visiting just about any folk festival over the past few years, and I include Glastonbury, must surely be now familiar with this good natured band of ex-pats, normally holed up in Madrid. Two Irish, an English, together with a far from token Yank make up these aimiable acoustic troubadours, who still perform with a foot each on the street and the stage, having begun as buskers, some many years ago. Caterpulted into a wider fanbase by the patronage of Messrs. Beer and Knightley, aka Show Of Hands: check out their Show Dogs collaboration.

It is tempting to forget they have been on active service for way longer than that, with six albums ahead that, and one since. Indeed, add on the two from the Garrett Wall Band, as they were previously named, and we are looking at a band with a 16 plus year lineage. This release is to claw together a sort of best of, bringing in also songs available only on singles and EPs, together with a batch of 9 new songs, or, at least, new in this set-up.

A HEALTHY MIX

Laid and covered acknowledges the healthy mix of their own songs and those borrowed that has always been part the deal. Initially I misunderstood, thinking the first disc was made up of their own writing, with the second all covers. Given I recognised only a few of the song titles on that second tranche, I had made the assumption the ones I didn’t were obscure and arcane Appalachian hand-me downs, only later realising that these were actually their own compositions, so seamlessly did they invoke the backporch old timeyness of ol’ Kentucky and surrounding states.

But, of course, their differing backgrounds add a whole lot more than banjos, guitars and mandolins, the hidden trump card being that applied by trumpet, where fumes of mariachi, vintage jazz and hymns ancient and modern seep also in. Sometimes in the same song. Which is clever.

No Sitting down

Disc one, Tracks Laid, kicks off with a trio of new songs and a flourish. Amor De Mi Vida, the first, comes out, full tilt and flailing, a salsa saucebomb that sets immediately their no sitting down sensibilities. Fuelled by Howard Brown’s exuberant parping, Garrett Wall hurls out the vocals, Spanish chorus but English verses, thrashing also away on his guitar, whilst the bottom line is meshed tightly together through the bass of Dave Mooney and is-that-really-just-a-cajon of Robbie K. Jones. What a start, followed immediately by the more orthodox jaunt of Beauty in The Mud, where all four combine their voices, adding to Wall’s urgent delivery. Bridges Are All Burnt now glides in on Bacharach-y trumpet, a slow ballad to show their more thoughtful side.

Coulda shoulda

The next 13 songs are cherry picked across their back pages, as far back as their eponymous debut as Track Dogs, in 2011. These tend toward the bouncy and are unashamed feelgood fodder, unashamed to pluck and plunder familiar templates. La Banda, for instance, from 2013’s All Roads, hides any association with La Bamba in plain sight, and coulda shoulda been a massive summer euro-pop smash, if they were even still a thing, 12 years ago. Papa Joe (Life On All Fours) adds a hint of ska into the proceedings, but the best songs are where they evoke the feel of the band, America, with mellow harmonies and meandering melodies. Move Like A Mountain and Broken Strings are two such, as is the McCartney-esque ukeathon of Whatever Happens, which then also sneaks in some caribbean percussive elements.

I am uncertain who Nick Haughton may be, but he is the featured guest for Yeah, Right, another new song, which is an aimiable earworm you wil find yourself singing at random moments, possibly forever. With the final track on this disc also new, did I say how many bang(er)s you are getting here, for your bucks? OK, track 20 may be a bit of a throway, skittery gibberish built around what is essentially a showcase, solo included, for Jones’ cajon. Do we need a cajon solo? No, but, as it is Robbie, who can possibly deny this jovial behatted longbeard this pleasure?

Varnish up easy

On to disc two, Covered, and the, as stated, mix of covers and more of their prescient originals. Ruby, Are You Mad At Your Man is Appalachian gold from way back, a call and response banjo holler. Jones, had anyone not realised, is also their banjo player, singing lead on this as well. Nothing big or clever, but so darn rooty tooty infectious as to soon be a live favourite. This Old Heart, up next, isn’t that one, but rather another one, made famous by Kitty Wells in 1961. With superb guest fiddling from Javiolin, it is presented in a skiffle setting, with yet more call and response vocals and the increasingly confident banjo of Jones.

Not quite new is Donna Lola, a highlight of their 2022 release, Where To Now, that version seeing them augmented by Cathy Jordan (Dervish) and by ATB favourites, Banter. Here it is just the toothsome foursome, and benefits from the greater stripping back, and some lovely autoharp.

RETURNS AND REPRISES

Moving to returns and reprises, who can remember Brandy You’re A Fine Girl, the original? Bar the trumpet, this version here could be any of the soft-rock combos that configured the American musical climate of the 1970’s, like the Starlight Vocal Band or Looking Glass, who actually had the 1972 hit. Track Dogs gift it even a flavour of Crosby, Stills and Nash in the closing doo-doos. Nobody can forget Easy, and the Commodores, but you never heard it like this, the song translating surprisingly easy into a country-pop iteration.

Both of these were originally tucked away on EPs. Ooh La La is such a dead cert for this sort of arrangement, and the band don’t waste the opportunity to give it a lick of varnish, to tidy up the hand me down cosiness of the song. And, where a trumpet might seem intrusive, Brown stays just on the right side of cheesy to keep it credibly ramshackle.

HamPton IN PISMO?

Similarly, not a newie, their cover of Man Of Constant Sorrow hasn’t actually had a vinyl life before, and provides a further potent alchemical mix of two blues, grass and beat respectively. The final cover, which stems back also to their debut, is the unique imagining of Nick Drake as surf dude, his Hazey Jane II in sthe style of Jack Johnson, which certainly deserves revisiting that memory.

The next 11 songs continue the retrospective trawl, with a number of notable guest appearances to give additional lustre. Oisin Breathnach is one such, his gritty soar for, not that one, Only Human, a soulful triumph. Don’t Delay has an early Eagles vibe, with harmonies from Ashley Campbell. You’ll have noticed here is more banjo than trumpet on this disc, concurrently less brass, so when it does appear, as on the Doobies like shuffle, Ballad Of 416, it is all the more welcome. Another highlight is the polygenric hoedown of Love And War, which, after a deceptively slow start, sidesteps entirely into a manic gypsy hoedown, with their buddy, Phil Beer, applying some gloriously sinuous fiddle around the campfire.

A sweetly hazy end of evening

You’d think All Clapped Out would be the endpoint for this disc, it, literally, clapped out by all four musicians; enjoyable nonsense like All The Above, which sealed disc one. But there is one more, a glorious slow piano blues, in the style of Tom Waits, if with his painfully sore throat now finally resolved. The very Waits-y title and theme for Wine On The Piano, is a surprise, sung, by Wall, to piano and trumpet, making for a sweetly hazy end of evening effect, not least as Jones and Mooney wade instrumentally, and for the la la la coda.

ESSENTIAL!

Is this, as it suggests on the cover, “Essential Track Dogs”? In all honesty, I think it inescapably is, with precious little filler, and short of investing in the entire back catalogue, this is a sound bridging buy. Note, however, without prejudice, that this is merely, so they state, the first two volumes!

After all that reading, y’all gonna need some hair let down, facial or otherwise, with what better than the the Track Dog take on blugrass staple, Ruby, Are You Mad At Your Man. (And yes, I note that even Robbie can’t play banjo and cajon at the same time!)

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