roadside ashes

Two Car Garage – Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes/Formula Juan – Grand Pricks b/w Chronica Majora – The Tall Stories (Stanley Records)

You’d like a dollar for every two-bit punk that ended up playing bastardised country, wouldn’t ya? How about three songs for the price of two?

Which brings us to this spilt single featuring always productive Sydneysider Dave Favours and his well-travelled Roadside Ashes and recent Newcastle match-ups Grand Pricks and The Tall Stories. The three bands crossed paths in a saloon off the Pacific Highway one boozy night and this EP is the by-product.

 Walking b/w Waterfront Blues - Dave Favours and The Roadside Ashes (Stanley Records)

The new single from ubiquitous Sydney country rocker Dave Favoursand his ace band is proof that you can take the boy out of Oz underground rock but you can’t take Oz underground rock out of the boy. It’s a 45 in the traditional of the double A side.

One  is a cover of The Eastern Darkand that’s overly faithful to the original, with Dave Hatt’s tasty slide the iceing. It's a show stopper, live. The other is a mid-tempo Favour-penned rocker that’s both an ode to lost love and The Eastern Dark’s old label (and retail home base), Sydney’s late and great Waterfront Records.Don’t we all wish we could go back there... 

Mixing a landmark and reflections on a relationship is a neat juxtaposition and The Roadside Ashes propel this story well, with a rock solid engine room, a swelling background vocal and sympathetic accompaniment. Michael Carpenter’sproduction (via the band leader’s home studio) is uncomplicated and punchy, while the cover art reflects both the song they've covered and the band members’ formative influences. Long Live the New (Country) Flesh!

1/2

Buy it 

Not Your Average Country Band - Dave Favours and The Roadside Ashes (Stanley Records) 

It doesn’t take many dots to join the lines between rock and roll and its forebears, country music and blues. Sydney’s Dave Favours and his band The Roadside Ashes do It better than many.

“Too rocking for country purists and too country for the rock crowd” is a familiar descriptor and it’s one that Dave Favours grips in a bear hug without any concession to social distancing. Hie says his music owes as much to Hank Williams as The Clash and that’s one reason you rockists (guilty as charged) may want to give it more than a cursory listen.

Cheap Motels After Midnight – Dave Favours and the Roadside Ashes (Stanley Records)

Forget the “alt.country” tag. It might be a comfortable peg on which to hang an urban cowboy’s hat but after 15 years, Sydneysider Dave Favourssurely occupies his own musical niche.

Maybe the tag should be “Ditch Country” – the twang is there, but like mid-70s Neil, he’s skirting a course along the gutter because it’s more interesting place to travel.