-Greg’s Take-

Just outside Boise, Idaho is vast wilderness. It may come as a surprise to most, but yes, the Treasure Valley is not some desolate high desert wasteland. In fact, it holds innumerable beauties.  When up in the Boise Mountains, if you stand still long enough and it quiet enough, it is said you can hear a trio of goats playing their Progressive PsychoBilly Folk Grass tunes in rhythm with the wild.

If you can’t make it out to Idaho, you can simply grab the latest from the Billlygoats. Jonathan Warren & The Billygoats proved with A Little Something Stronger Than Wine that their Boise Stomp had something great stirring deep inside and with their latest, On This Very Evening, it erupts on all fronts.

The folk/bluegrass standard comes with a certain level of inherent love song but when The Billgoats sing a lamenting love song, it becomes so much more. On This Very Evening puts to rest any question as to what precisely Progressive PsychoBilly Folk Grass means. It is one part rockabilly, one part folk, one part bluegrass and one deceptively blues splash for flavor. Shake it up, throw it in your flask and take it in like a good whisky because there is nothing quite like this anywhere else and the resulting flavorful thirteen tracks are top shelf Boise.

At times Evening shows signs of a formula that works incredibly well for them, one that wasn’t quite there in A Little Something, but in a veteran fashion it does not become repetitive or overused. They slowly build-up with an acoustic twang, rock you into a lull, and then launch into their signature body-moving, foot-stomping electric style that will put a smile on your face and a spark in your soul. At times, they even venture into, dare I say experimentation. Album opener “Greyhound” subtly slides into an Austin Clark electro-violin rhythm that had me instantly hitting repeat.  “Handshake” draws on the aforementioned rockabilly and amounts to nothing short of addicting. And to send us on our way, the boys compose a beautiful adieu with “Honey Dear.” The nearly six and a half minute song strides on simple acoustic strum before crashing in with a dance floor-filling ending that leaves you smiling ear-to-ear.

Jonathan Warren & The Billygoats work hard. From album to stage, they put everything they have into every tale they sing. It is obvious these Billygoats are not of myth but of passion. Get out to see them live, you won’t be sorry. Until then, grab On This Very Evening.