-lionsteeth

Dan Mcgee cares about three things; the mighty church of the bottle, the distant sent of a lost woman, and the twangy new country sounds of his band Spider Bags. I discussed this band of southern fried troubadours a few months ago and included a few tracks of the album “A Celebration of Hunger”  which was Spider Bags first full length album, and after hours of searching I’ve finally acquired Dan McGee & Spider Bags “Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World”. All of the classic elements of Spider Bags that I loved are still there, Dan McGee’s crooning raspy voice, laying out stories drenched in beer and whiskey, tales of lovers posed with the affluence of a hillbilly Poet Laureate “the longer than I stick around the more I forget, life is spent between cigarettes and regret”. Like their earlier albums Spider Bags cooks us up quite a few bangers, fast paced bar brawlers, seen and heard through their own personal beer goggles. However on “Goodbye Cruel World..” we see another side of Dan McGee not so present in just Spider Bags releases. We see his life as a Saturday news paper comic strip. Dan McGee falls for a woman, she forgets/leaves/hurts him, he drinks down his sorrows, he writes a song. Luckily for us, no where on this album do things feel hopeless or even worse, cheesy. McGee is able to keep things light enough to keep us up and alter enough to process his napkin scribblings. All in all “Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World” is a chuck wagon ride through the dusty some times heart broken hills of Raleigh North Carolina where McGee and Spider Bags call home, and I’ve never been happier.

Spider Bags – Long White Desert Rose

Spider Bags – Que Viva El Rocanrol

-lionsteeth