This Taos, New Mexico-based female-male duo attempt to do something just beyond their reach as they strive to make records as good as their country-rock-folk influences. In the process, they strike upon an overall simpatico sound that is bucolic and boundless as their adopted rugged and sweeping terrain. Deciphering the 21-century Southwest, built upon layers of natural and human history, and delivering it musically in private press style can be as treacherous as traversing the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It’s definitely easier for weekend cowpokes to simply offer fool’s gold replica rehash at the ol’ Bandcamp trading post. Bucking the trends, Trummors have been radiating their otherworldly Southwestern sound for the past decade, putting down roots and recording some hidden gem albums like Moorish Highway along the way. I actually recall David Lerner some 20 years removed in time and space as the bass player in the group Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. The night I saw him in Phoenix, he looked like Chris Bell from Big Star with Ted Leo playing the role of Alex Chilton. Dropping out "way out west" does make sense after endlessly touring the big country in a Dodge-y van as a road warrior Pharmacist for 5 years. Furthermore, New Mexico seemingly presents an alluring option to the quotidian patterns, the constant trackings of the digital age and the unceasing political turmoil of these times. The wraparound vast blue sky is indeed different in the Southwest where the wide open vistas can offer perspectives and possibilities for those who look up.
Dropout City starts boldly by exploring some unmarked trails on the opener “Late Arrival” which leads into some dissonance that is as jagged as Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument. The partners proceed to circuitously find their way back to the main trail before returning "home sweet dome" to kerosene lamps, Navajo rugs, Michaelangelo and Taos records. The 3/4th waltzing “Oh Laura” is achingly reminiscent of the long forgotten Idaho Falls in presenting a loping, lilting and lamenting tale of a Western drifter set against the vast horizon. In other spots, they evoke the Ladybug Transistor tuned to the Honky Tonk Radio Girl on WFMU. Sometimes, their unhurried pace seems a little too removed from the onward rush of life on songs like “Rollin’ Boulders” and spurs one to mutter, “Giddy up Giddy Up” and reach for the nearest disc by the Dickies. The tempo picks up on “What You Had” and things start to fall in place on the back stretch of the album. This number rides the steel guitar rails and is straight down the pike with its sage wisdom of “No sense of returning...to where you've been.” “Silver City Blues” sounds like the BMX Bandits kicking up dust a la the Radio Sweethearts and incorporates the bass playing of Brent Rademaker from Beachwood Sparks. Another highlight is Anne Cunningham taking the lead vocals and reins on “Tulsa Country” that was written by Pam Polland of Gentle Soul and recorded by the Byrds-the bedrock band of this sound. “Peacock Angel” ventures deep into a hazy mirage and features their intertwined “harmonic convergence” vocals inspired by Gentle Soul, Chuck and Mary Perrin and the Everly Brothers records of yore. Their coinciding vocals mostly convey a good natured and welcomed optimistic outlook and are augmented with a host of proficient musicians from the West Coast Cosmic Country scene. Not to be missed are the pronounced and sweetly plaintive steel guitar lines which run fluidly throughout the record. Both pedal steel and slide guitars embellish their sound with lovely accents, while filling the spaces between the distant stars and the Western sun. Dropout City is branded with Trummors’ rustic yet dexterous Western borderlands twang that reminds listeners of adventures which still await in the Land of Enchantment.
