Proper TK1211 music/sound recording CD Country The Kennedys

Twenty years on might seem like a time to rest on one's laurels, nurse the wounds brought on by the slings and arrows of the road, and look back in warm nostalgia at the great years, but Americana duo The Kennedys are having none of that. In defiance of any nostalgic inclinations, Pete and Maura Kennedy are releasing three CDs in 2015; forty newly-written songs in all, save a classic from the late John Stewart and a new song penned for the duo by John Wicks, front man for jangle bosses The Records.

The first of these three discs, West, will be released in the UK only. As one might infer from the title, West is an evocative picture of the duo's two decades of travel down the highways and byways of America. They've ridden Route 66 any number of times, and, originally based in Austin, they've used the two-lane back roads of Texas as a common setting for their dustbowl ballads.

The album itself ranges across their musical travels, as well. Low-pitched, Glen Campbell inspired guitars sound melodic hooks, two-part harmonies suggest the high lonesome sound of the Appalachians (Pete grew up in Virginia), and the occasional celtic feel suggests that "West" could momentarily refer to the heart of Ireland, but there's an overall "Mojave Desert" feel to the collection that places it firmly in the sagebrush and pinion, west of the Pecos?