Judd heads Plenty of Pondering for alt-country fans BY SAM PFEIFLE
	PONDERING JUDD Releasing Lonesome Heart Strangers | Horsefeathers, North Conway, NH, Oct 1 | Apple Harvest Day, Dover, NH, Oct 1 | www.ponderingjudd.com

Your rabid local roots fan has got to be near ecstatic at this point. Recent weeks have seen well-above-average releases from Matt Shipman, Dave Rowe, Jon Nolan, Cindy Bullens, and Micah Blue Smaldone that do about as good a job as one can imagine in reflecting the spectrum of contemporary Americana. With Rowe you get the ultra-trad string-band delivery; Shipman adding in modern conveniences to a similar sound. Nolan’s your Jayhawks/Uncle Tupelo alt-country torchbearer; Bullens does the same for rockin’ country. Then there’s Smaldone, a guy looking to drag us 80 years into the past by putting out a disc that’s perfectly present with its steel resonator and lonesome vocals.

But that’s not the end of it. Not by a long shot. This weekend will bear witness to a tenth-anniversary party/CD-release gig for Diesel Doug and the Long Haul Truckers and their Mistakes Were Made, a greatest-hits package of sorts. How many local bands put out a retrospective? Only those who’ve got a serious legacy to draw on here in Portland (I’d say King Memphis are about due for one next). Since I wrote the liner notes for the Diesel Doug disc, I won’t go into an extended review, but let’s just say that I wouldn’t write glowing emotion-filled liner notes for just any band. The Truckers do something really right, even if they’re just laying down Telecaster-infused country rock and being a little silly.

Still, there’s more. After five years of radio silence, Pondering Judd, Portsmouth-area behemoths (well, winners of numerous Spotlight awards over a 10-year period of their own, anyway), launched into 2005 with a flurry. First, they put out a seven-song EP, Succumb to Hell, in February, now they have more to share with the full-length follow-up, Lonesome Heart Strangers. There have been some lineup changes along the 10-year journey, but lead vocalist and principle songwriter Martin England has been along for the entire ride and shows no signs of letting up on the gas pedal.

For a guy who loves down-in-the-mouth lyrics, he’s got a penchant for up-beat pop numbers, that’s for sure. Even the song dedicated to his deceased father, "Funeral Flowers," sort of can’t help but be a singalong. It’s a little clunkier than most here, possibly because it’s one of those songs a songwriter sits down to write and thus doesn’t come out as well as those tunes that just sort of pop into his head.

Like maybe "Dry As Fire," which strikes me as tune generated by a chance encounter with some bombshell gal who caused sparks. It’s got a Western swing to it, with a backing of Hank Decken’s lap steel, but it’s the drums that drive this song, a quick snare that makes for a great contrast to those languid steel tones — which are contrasted further by a quick and jazzy electric guitar break that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Pat Metheny album mid-way through the tune. As you might expect from studio veterans such as these, there are lots of carefully executed layers here, all providing foundation for England’s constant lead vocals, which get harmony backing on an ultra-catchy chorus.

Don’t forget the lyrics, either. England’s a wordsmith of note, and coming across something like "I’m parenthetically involved/ With a waitress at the bar/ Who reads my palm at breakfast every night/ And says that I can’t live on borrowed time," in "Too Hard (Reprise)," can be a revelation. Or how about "I’ve been married to you/ In my head, but we’re divorced/ From the possibilities," from "When You’re Ready"? The guy can really turn a phrase.

He shows range with his voice, too, which at first you might think is a one-note pony. Opening "Wake up," he travels maybe three octaves from the start of the first line to the end of the second. He can do a Marc Cohn pop/gospel/country thing in "Beside You" just as easily as he can do a Celtic, old-timey thing in "Maybellene," a song that may or may not be about a prostitute. On the latter, he gets help from new guitarist Mark Edgerly (or "Edge" to the fans, not to be confused with "The Edge"). His electric mimics a bagpipes cadence early, then rips a sweet break later with an interesting effect that’s not quite distorted, not quite clean.

By the time you hit what I’d pick for the single, the David Gray–sounding "Alone," you won’t be surprised at all by Edgerly’s circling hook, Steve Jacques’s bouncy drums, or England’s Raymond Carver reference. You’ll just be surprised no one told you about this record sooner.

Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam@phx.com