Mark ‘Diesel’ Lizotte was born in America, raised in Australia and has gone back and forth between the two countries various times since. He has a unique perspective on American music as an ideal and as a practical entity, and the ideas cross over frequently on Americana.
The concept is very clever: classic American tunes covered in styles other than that within which they were originally recorded. So we get a scrappy Link Wray vibe in Springsteen’s Born To Run, a Steve Earle-esque take on Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire, a sort of psychedelic soul approach to James Taylor’s Fire And Rain and a bit of jump blues in Buddy Holly’s Rave On. And it works brilliantly, even on that Born To Run cover, where a lesser artist would struggle to pull the song out from under its own weight.
Yet for all the great material and performances contained herein, perhaps the most fun track is the opening instrumental, which also happens to be the only non-cover on the record. Hank’s Dream is a tremulous, twangy, vintage toned, surf instrumental which feels equally spaghetti western and Californian summer sunset.
Diesel hasn’t been shy about his influences lately, 2013’s Under The Influence was loaded with great classic rock covers rendered in more or less faithful arrangements, which seemed to say ‘this is what inspired me.’ Americana exhibits a more nuanced kind of inspiration, the inspiration found in the moment of creativity.
BY PETER HODGSON
