Sam Platts and the Plainsmen just released a new album, West Side, on December 2. The album was recorded at Peak Recording by Gil Stober and also recorded at House of Emmett by Bill Dwyer. It was produced by Bill Dwyer and mixed by Eric Ambel at Cowboy Technical Services. Mastering was by Richard Dodd.
The album is a real throwback solid country and Western swing record. Straight up. Listen and you’ll get the sense right from the opening note that you’ve stepped back in time a few decades.
“Just in Time” sets the album up with deep bass vocals and cheery stringed instruments in a song about leaving when you’re not wanted.
“Seven Times a Day” continues the fiddle grooves and you’ll realize you’re not wrong about this album, as it serves up a style that seems to be from another era, and yet, we all seem to be thirsty for more of what it has to offer now.
“Whoopee Ti Yi Yo” is their version of this traditional cowboy song, complete with little dogies, a chuck wagon and Wyoming. “Canadian Line” is swingy with lines about cutting the grain, traveling the world, a patchwork quilt, and watching the winter wheat dry out on the Canadian line. The imagery is sunny and the fiddle is easy.
Sam Platts wrote most of these original songs and tapped into what traditional country and Western songs from the 1960s (and much earlier) still deliver. And that’s wide open countrysides and plain spoken simplicity. And something intangible in the old homesteaders’ “do it yourself” style of living. It’s almost completely lost now, buried beneath piles of information and stuff. But we’re still looking for it, and Sam Platts & the Plainsmen have found it for us.
The album embodies a real Merle Haggard, old style country sensibility. And at times it sounds like a track out of long lost Bob Wills record, except that its production quality is clearer and lacks crackle.
Enjoy our previous coverage here: Song Premiere: Sam Platts “Seven Times A Day”
Find more info about the band here: https://www.samplatts.com
Musicians on the album are:
Sam Platts: vocals, archtop rhythm guitar
Lilly Platts: violin
J Kane: bass, harmony vocals
Bill Dwyer: electric guitar, vocal arrangements
Paul Marshall: harmony vocals, vocal arrangements