Might Could

This is what it's all about - a great band of good musicians who know how to write funny songs, sad songs, clever songs, songs that rock and roll. There is no gimmick here: Amigo is the real thing. They've got a rootsy, down home sound - folk and rock like Wilco and the Band, and like those groups, composed of singers of much heart and soul. When they harmonize, it's not perfect like the Eagles, it's more like real people, and you want to sing along. They use funny country music conceits like Where have all the bad times gone? but in their hands, it works. They sing of that old junkie two-step and cheap domestic stuff and pull you in, you want more. Clean pedal steel lines underscore the funky soul, the jaunty vocals. Acoustic textures throughout are delicate, and set up these stories cinematically, especially the great Old Testaments and Nail Bombs which follows the wise blood in the veins of church-goers, and gives us some keen insight into both the dark and light of the faithful. Murder of Crows is presented in great multitudes of harmony against a cool and chugging guitar groove, and takes you out on a journey that is mysterious and foreboding - both happy and scary at the same time, a dynamic and dimensional effect. Easy Rider is like a party with Jackson Browne, a mariachi band and lots of tequila. The Hammond organ, wed with mariachi horns, is infectious. This is unexpected and serious songwriting rendered by a band capable of vast extremes, the kind of band that could be around a long time. I hope they are. - Paul Zollo, American Songwriter.