Full Western Dress

The Derailers' third studio record and finest yet, Full Western Dress pursues the group's Buck Owens fascination, once again offering amazingly accurate imitations of the Buckaroos' 1960s-era "train sound." This time out they even duet with their hero on "Play Me the Waltz of the Angels." The Derailers do dress up the retro act occasionally, though it speaks volumes that they do it by including sounds that Buck himself incorporated in later years. Several cuts here have a Merseybeat-meets-Byrds jangle, for example; a cover of Marty Robbins's "Knee Deep in the Blues" just flat cooks. Other modifications include a Dave Alvin-produced sound as pretty as it is muscular and some long-overdue Buck-worthy hooks. What still holds the Derailers back, though, is the same-old, same-old: music that's sonically stunning but emotionally flat. The genuinely lonely-sounding "Me, Myself and I" provides one welcome exception to this rule, but mainly Full Western Dress is just one more beautiful Nudie suit with nothing up its sleeve. --David Cantwell