Thank the Lord . . . It’s the Pink Stones is all the title you need
With eleven songs branded on the cover as “new country standards,” this is a daring collection from the band out of Athens, Georgia. Its shortest track runs for four minutes and forty-eight seconds, which is the kind of thing that matters only for charts and radio play. Thank the Lord, however, has holier intentions.
On their third and latest album, Hunter Pinkston and The Pink Stones take inspiration from those earlier old country singers who spun gospel stories alongside their musical and legal records of sinning. With Adam Wayton on bass and Neil Golden on organs and piano alongside the newcomers Chris Boese on steel and Michael Alexander on drums and percussion, The Pink Stones call forth and upon this tradition of George Jones, Johnny Cash, and so many others. Then, they carry it forward.
Among the musical forerunners, the distant poles of the sacred and the profane testified to the power of salvation and the strong jaws of sin. But Pinkston looks on and celebrates the trials and the tribulations of loving in a more tempered way.
The title track “Thank the Lord,” which was recorded at the Cash Cabin, reflects this sensibility. The religious invocation only sanctifies the worldly experience of loving. Or as on “Such a Sight” where Pinkston put it simply, “To wake up with you in the morning, Heaven’s never seen such a sight.” Across Thank the Lord, Pinkston’s sensitivity to the worldly (as opposed to the heavenly or, better yet, the abstract) yields numerous lyrical pleasures. An airplane is made a vessel of heartbreak. And solitaire, a symbol of loneliness.
I’m sorry, but that opening line is too good: “It took me twenty-seven years to start playing solitaire.” Nobody has any business penning that kind of line to describe the experience of a break-up. But gems like this fill Thank the Lord. And top to bottom, the arrangements shine as bright.
If you still haven’t, listen and notice. How the collective instrumentals bloom through the verse. How the band lets things breathe before ripping into the ripping chorus. Even as these songs witness to the indignities and sufferings that compose modern life, they testify to joy and refuse to be constrained.
This offering is out on September 19 from Normaltown Records. Don’t sneak a copy from the passing plate. Instead, get your copy of Thank the Lord . . . It’s the Pink Stones on the up and up. You can find it here.
Don’t wait because in The Pink Stones’ case, the last judgment is a good one. This is a record that deserves to fill a house on a Sunday morning. Whether the listener is nursing a hangover (perhaps like the protagonists of “Too Busy”) or cleaning up before another week of work or just enjoying the bells, the birds, and the mourning light shining in through open windows from far up above.
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The Pink Stones is led by Hunter Pinkston on guitar, vocals, percussion, and mandolin. Rounding out the band are Caleb Boese (pedal steel), Michael Alexander (drums and percussion), Adam Wayton (bass), and Neil Golden (organ and piano). Alongside the central quintet, featured and additional artists include Wyatt Ellis singing and playing mandolin, Henry Barbe singing and playing the reverb tank, John Neff playing dobro, Drew Beskin singing, John Cherry playing mellotron, Libby Weitnauer playing fiddle, Curtis Callis playing banjo, and Gideon Johnston playing percussion and singing harmony.
All songs on Thank the Lord . . . It’s the Pink Stones were written by Hunter Pinkston and The Pink Stones. Alongside Pinkston,Henry Barbe co-produced, recorded, and engineered the record at Hern’s End and Chase Park Transduction. Additional engineering was provided by Trey Call at the Cash Cabin Studio, John Cherry, Will Ellis, John Neff and Neil Golden, and Adam Wayton. Nick Townsend at Infrasonic Mastering mastered the record.