The Gourds - Noble Creatures

Kaleidoscopic Country-rockers The Gourds continue defining their own unique musical genre with their 2007 release Noble Creatures.

On Noble Creatures songwriters Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith continue their quirky ramble down the mountain, past dusty delta back porches and through the hanging moss of southwest Louisiana.

In classic Gourds fashion the Mussel Shoals rekindling of How Will You Shine rides shotgun with the honky-soul of Moon Gone Down, but on Noble Creatures it's Russell's ballads that mark the album as an epaulet on the shoulder of an already mighty career.

Promenade soars with a from-the-gut tale of squandered happiness and courses with Danko-like emotion. In Steeple Full of Swallows the desolate yet hopeful bandy of banjo and guitar trickles along a delicate dream-song, cut by the acid of Russell's sharp yet tuneful holler. As relevant and irreverent as ever, The Gourds are Noble Creatures indeed.

• How Will You Shine?
• Kicks In the Sun
• Promenade
• A Few Extra Kilos
• Last Letter
• The Gyroscopic
• Moon Gone Down
• Red Letter Day
• Out On the Vine
• Cranky Mulatto
• Steeple Full Of Shadows
• All In the Pack
• Flavor On the Tongue
• Dr. Spivey