Paw
Home Is A Strange Place
Koch Records
All but vanishing from the music scene after the release of Death to Traitors in 1995, Paw returns with seven songs infused with the desolate spirit of the Midwestern plains. Recorded in the band’s hometown of Lawrence, Kansas and produced by guitarist and songwriter Grant Fitch, Home Is A Strange Place embraces coarse roots that bleed into the music, giving it a flavor wholly unique within the predominantly urban world of hard rock. Once signed to A&M Records, Paw did release one independent album, Keep The Last Bullet For Yourself, after that label’s collapse and subsequent buy out, but neither this, nor the modest-selling Traitors, ever matched the small success of their first album, Dragline, and the singles “Jesse” and “Couldn’t Know.” Critically lauded from the time of their inception for crafting personal, episodic songs that trace the rural American experience, Paw have tinkered with their formula and refined it—blurring the lines between straight storytelling and cryptic metaphor. These rustic images, which reveal the inherent complexities found within everyday events, are summoned from the murky depths of singer Mark Hennessey’s consciousness and delivered in a husky drawl that often escalates into a determined growl. Fitch humbly displays a much developed ear for songwriting and an increasingly unique guitar style—flowing freely from brutal low-end rhythms to shimmering open chords to subtly powerful leads.
Home Is A Strange Place offers a taste of where this band has been and where it's heading. Four of the tracks are new takes on the traditional Paw rocker, and display more balanced transitions among verse, chorus, and bridge than on any of the bands previous work. “Blow Wind” is an immediate standout—a thrilling account of a power line disaster that rides high along the crest of Fitch’s chugging main rhythm throughout the verse and chorus, emptying into a pool of bright acoustic strumming and soaring atmospherics during the bridge. A vigorous undercurrent from new bassist Dan Hines carves a path for “Naiad,” which ebbs and flows through Hennessey’s tortured regret and a flurry of guitar textures. Concise acoustic jaunts bookend these chunks of inspired rock, and a hopeful instrumental piece, “Into The Woods,” bisects them cleanly. The final track, “Oily Rags,” is an eerie afterthought drenched in echo and otherworldly slide playing. Fitch’s deep tones and rhythmic style transfer quite naturally to the acoustic guitar, and he generously offers up a taste of Paw’s organic side on this EP, which helps to further round out the band’s renovated sound. Whilst many of today’s rock guitarists are somehow compelled to whittle their playing into something categorizable and definable, Fitch has expanded on his already eclectic string demeanor, melding elements of Folk, Country, and Eastern music into the menagerie. Taking on the duties of producer is a blessing for both Fitch and his band, since it allows him the freedom to experiment with new influences, thus molding a richer, fuller bodied Paw sound.
D. Cullity
1. Ruby Red
2. One Handed In The Red Room
3. Blow Wind
4. Into The Woods
5. Naiad
6. Home Is A Strange Place
7. Oily Rags