There’s a warmth that radiates from Clementine, the second full-length album from Milwaukee alt-country band Ladybird. It’s there in the good-times songs about rock star dreams and barstool camaraderie. It’s there in the images of blue lapis belt buckles and blue Midwestern skies. And it’s there in the album’s gorgeous production (from the band and Ian Olvera), open, airy, and inviting. “I don’t know where I’ll go lookin’ to / But I wouldn’t mind going there with you,” Pete McDermott sings on the album’s title track. How friendly is that?
But, like any good country album worth its weight in shots and heartache, there’s a longing that radiates from Clementine, too. It’s there in the growing-old gloom of “Old Fashioned” (“All our parents were just kids like we are now”). It’s there in the they-don’t-make-’em-like-they-used-to vibe of “99” (a tribute to late Wisconsin race car driver Dick Trickle). And it’s there in the lonesome lap steel, the reverb-tinged lead vocals, and the sepia-toned harmonies that haunt the record throughout. “All those people I wanted to be / It always ends up the same way, hungry heart and running down a dream,” McDermott sings on “Old Fashioned.” How melancholy is that? (The Springsteen and Petty nods point to Ladybird’s equally strong rock roots.)
All of this is to say that Clementine is a fantastic record, a record that solidifies Ladybird as one of the city’s finest groups. Album highlights include opener “Famous Band,” a tongue-in-cheek make-it-big rave-up about “smoking a joint with Willie Nelson at the CMAs” and kicking it with Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger; the bleary-eyed “Lapis Buckle,” which contains some of McDermott’s most evocative lyrics (“There’s nothing there waiting so I stop in for another drink or two / Alone on barstool mountain I realize the only mirror I miss is you”); the sad-sack “Put Me Down”; the talk-y story song “Redneck Repent”; the aforementioned title track; and the aforementioned “Old Fashioned.” That’s a lot of highlights for a nine-track record! It all adds up to Ladybird’s most focused, most thematically rich effort yet.
“That old flame makes you wonder if there’s any shot left to shoot,” McDermott sings on the brooding “Pittsburgh.” It’s a nice summation: warmth, longing, and classic country goodness all wrapped into one. Clementine is a hell of a shot from Ladybird, and it’s safe to say the band has plenty left to shoot.
Ladybird will celebrate the release of Clementine at not one, but two Cactus Club shows on Saturday, November 1. The early show will feature support from Long Line Riders, while the late show will include sets from Alewives and Chapped Lips.
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