CD Reviews

Darling Downs

How Can I Forget This Heart of Mine? | Carrot Top

By ANDREW MARCUS | December 11, 2006

3.0 Stars

Australia has always had a way of taking American genres and making them their own in a down-to-earth way, from the breeziness of singer-songwriter Paul Kelly to the power pop of the Hoodoo Gurus and You Am I to the garage rumblings of Lime Spiders and Jet. Even alt-country isn’t beyond their reach, whether it’s boozy (the Beasts of Bourbon) or sweet (Kasey Chambers). This debut by Darling Downs — former Died Pretty singer Ron Peno and Aussie punk icon Kim Salmon — goes beyond alt-country to get to the roots of Americana with elegant, bare-wood production that can be as primordial as Appalachian folk or as tuneful as the Louvin Brothers or Buddy Holly. It’s an exquisitely simple disc filled with lyrics whose charms unfold gradually. “Hold me ’cause you’re lonely, not because you’re bound/Here’s the thing I’m saying, softer than sound,” Peno sings in “In That Jar,” with a Hank Williams voice that keeps threatening to crack. From a guitarist known for guts and glory, Salmon’s acoustic work is surprisingly sweet and sparse, favoring bare pluck-and-strum over the any hint of flash.