(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Railroad Jerk stand alongside Royal Trux and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion among the great theorists of Delta blues noise in the 1990s.
Singer and guitarist Marcellus Hall (born in Great Bluff, Minnesota) formed the group in 1989 on Manhattans Lower East Side with bassist Tony Lee and drummer Jez Aspinall. Within a few months guitarist Chris Mueller also joined.
Railroad Jerk (Matador, 1990) resumed swamp blues where Cramps and Gun Club had left it at the end of their perverse orgies. With the same expertise as the Magic Band or Pussy Galore, singer Marcellus Hall and his band of outlaws of popular music burst into ramshackle harmonies behind which one can recognize the features of blues (Don't Be Jealous), rockabilly (Old Mill Stream), boogie (Glamorous Bitch), and country (Carnival), torn apart by very urban neuroses but also by a sincere love for the raw and the dirty. With tempos just slightly off and overly rudimentary accompaniments, Railroad Jerk manage to produce masterful renditions of those stereotypes.
All these elements coagulate into grotesque sarabandes such as Talking RR Jerk Blues (which quotes a host of classic anthems) and I'm Not Mad (where they hit bottom, now without restraint). Overall it is a schizophrenic work, moving from the most primitive riffs of In My Face to the more gloriously epic ones of Participant (a stones throw from the Velvet Underground). The quartet sabotaged the conventions of Irish folk, Chicago rhythm and blues, New Orleans jazz, Northwest garage-rock, and Appalachian folk with criminal nonchalance.
With a revamped lineup, Raise The Plow (Matador, 1992) is a more subtle record. While the band still roams mercilessly across ragtime (Yes Baby), country & western (Pin Prick), voodoobilly (Hanging Around) and voodoobilly (Call Me The Son), the sound is rounder and more measured, perhaps even more refined in its references. Only thus can their excursions into the territory of vaudeville and operetta (These Streets) be explained. The ballad Fixin' To Die (a reworking of Bukka Whites classic), with its marching pace amid a storm of distortions, ranks among their masterpieces.
Meanwhile drummer Jez Aspinall had been replaced by Dave Varenka and guitarist Chris Mueller by Alec Stephen. The single The Ballad of Jim White and Halfway Across, on the EP We Understand, confirmed the bands splendid form despite the constant lineup changes.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
One Track Mind (Matador, 1995 - Matador, 2002) is a mixed bag,
because Hall is growing up and aiming at real songwriting
(The Ballad of Railroad Jerk, Home=Hang), but he thereby
sacrifices his eccentricity.
His Dylanian obsession surfaces one more time with the rap
Bang The Drum (a re-working of the backside Younger Than You from 1991) and the
plaintive, macabre blues Forty Minutes.
Beefheart blessed Gun Problem and Rollercoaster during a nap.
The rest is the work of a
performer turned songwriter who just wasn't gifted as a songwriter the way
he was as a performer.
Far less raunchy and spontaneous than they used to be, the Railroad Jerk
approach the songs on The Third Rail (Matador, 1996) as serious
compositions. Trouble is, they succeed precisely when they are less focused
and more laid-back. The
excessive syncopation and atonal jangling of Clean Shirt sounds like
stiff and cerebral progressive-rock.
On the other hand, the reckless romps of
Objectify Me and Natalie
find another intriguing intersection of
Slim Harpo's blues, Cramps' madness and
Sticky Fingers-era Rolling Stones.
Middle Child is even a
horns-driven rhythm and blues and jazz orgy that recalls
Little Feat and Taj Mahal.
The clownish garage-rock of You Bet and the
yodeling novelty Sweet Librarian are witty and entertaining.
Hall has only himself to blame if these albums don't sound as good as
Royal Trux.
Marcellus Hall formed White Hassle and then recorded
The First Line (Glacial Pace Recordings, 2011), credited to himself
but featuring a new band, the Hostages, in the vein
of the acoustic singer-songwriter.
He then formed the Hostages that released
Afterglow
(2013) and returned solo with
I Will Never Let You Down
(2024).
Unreleased Railroad Jerk material surfaced on
Masterpiecemeal (2022).
