Review: The Lonely H – Concrete Class

Oct 5, 2009 by David Couch

Album: Concrete Class
Artist: The Lonely H
Release Date: June, 2009
http://myspace.com/thelonelyh

From Washington come The Lonely H. Five years together can see the culmination of their efforts in Concrete Class. A record that you can only guess was inspired by rambling and roaming through the empty fields of the mid-west playing the gigs they can get their hands on with the mentality of a wayward cowboy re-inventing the rodeo. As far as looks go that’s pretty much what you get, but this is the music not the picture business. But you get the idea; life imitates art, art imitates life.

Concrete Class is a well rounded album, the tracks melt into an overall rhythm that is hard to achieve. Especially at 45 minutes, maintaining interest and keeping it alive is a hard thing to do for a band without previous big commercial success to pull it off. The Lonely H are something of the underground pioneers in that respect proving that you don’t need the bullshit, just the talent and hardwork to make a name for yourself.

Personally I think the production quality is outstanding, if you could see me I would be standing up and giving a deft salute to the ol’ boys. The return of dusty blues rock by these hip young gunslingers is something to be praised indeed.
The momentum is good between the slow and fast songs it keeps the album alive and interesting, while the vocals do the rest of the work as to keeping you enthralled whether coming through on the ballad ‘White Horse Tears’ or getting gritty on ‘Going Out West’. Special mention also goes to ‘The River’ a particular treat that uses a simple acoustic rhythm combined with some real nice group harmonies.

The harmony created with the guitar and piano work a kind of old school magic on tracks like ‘Right Down To Me’, especially on the chorus parts make the tracks memorable because they posses a tangible kind of emotion that pours out of the speakers. While the sound is still original, the influx of cowboy rock is something of a current trend. So when you pick up a copy of Concrete Class remember that The Lonely H do it with a pureness and honesty that is hard to ignore when the songs start to play.