The Cutting Room in NYC 2/19/08 l. to r. Tom Hampton, Jack Sundrud, Craig Bickhardt
Idlewheel
Idlewheel it sounded like good road trip music, so I took the duos CD out on a drive through central Ohio the other day. Somewhere past Coshocton but miles before Mt. Vernon, I cued up the first track and settled into the sweet travelers groove that only the right merging of sound and landscape can provide.
A two-lane highway can unfold like a book of stories as the miles flash by. Idlewheels music has the same sense of discovery to it carried along by its easy-flowing rhythms are flashes of personal revelation and homespun irony, speeding past you like an oddly familiar (or familiarly odd) small town.
Craig Bickhardt and Jack Sundrud do it all with a wry nonchalance that belies their uncommon craftsmanship these guys know the high road of country-rock better than most. Their credits are solid and sterling Bickhardt was a member of renowned Nashville group SKB, while Sundrud enjoyed success with Great Plains and (most recently) Poco. But really, Idlewheel isnt a spin-off (no pun intended) of these bands. Its more the product of afternoons spent swapping stories and woodshedding songs, of testing each others creative limits in defiance of Nashvilles prevailing conservatism.
The creative sparks that flew between Craig and Jack during their writing sessions glow brightly here. The two of them have a knack for unreeling vignettes and painting miniatures within a pop song structure, displaying a keen eye for the telling lyric detail. Tunes like Sweet Sadness and When I Tell You I Love You have the acute veracity of life lived, not imagined for radio consumption. Their collective viewpoint is tempered with a sharp edge Mona Lisas Frown, for one, is surely one of the great put-down songs of our era. They combine intimacy and grandeur in Id Move Heaven and Earth. And with Invisible Hope, they achieve a moral subtlety worthy of Sherwood Anderson or Raymond Carver.
These incisive lyrics are framed by a stripped-down production approach, rendered with snap and bite. The duos vocals have a rough-hewn, unvarnished quality, with Jacks emotive higher-end tenor and Craigs evocative lower-range vocals balancing nicely. The sound conjures up memories of the feisty, unfettered spirit of early Southern California country-rock, with a dash of the Everly Brothers thrown in.
As noted above, Idlewheel is perfect for a journey into the heartland. But you dont need to hit the road to let their music take you places. This anthology of celebratory and bittersweet songs is all thats required.
-- Barry Alfonso
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