Mark Utley and Bulletville

Speaking of bars, the opening bars of Utley’s solo album, "Four Chords and a Lie", set the listener squarely in a honky tonk dive as twangy guitar, barrelhouse piano and pedal steel try to sweep the cobwebs away. Although billed as a solo album, there’s a good degree of miscegenation with Magnolia Mountain here as Renee Frye and Jeff Vanover appear on all of the songs. The album is just about 50/50 between stripped-down efforts with Ricky Nye adding keyboards to the Mountain trio and the full blown honky tonk experience delivered by his country band Bulletville, featuring Jim Gaines on pedal steel. The “solo” songs range from the sinister "Little Black Dress" where Utley is on the prowl for a bad bad woman to share his lust, delivered with just the right amount of sleaze and menace to "Blackbird On the Wire", which unfortunately has a strained and unfinished feel to it. He redeems this with the final song "Say A Prayer For Me" which could easily have been written and delivered by Bobby Whitlock on the Derek & the Dominos album. The Bulletville songs are all excellent with alcohol and bars featuring well to the fore. "Waitin' On Ruby Raye" has Utley salivating over a favourite saloon singer while "Not All Right Together" is an almost perfect tale of a drunken love tryst. Gaines’ pedal steel shines here as it does on the tearful, beerful lament that is "Nothin' But Time", a classic country tune that had it been released in the sixties would have had the nation crying in their beers. - Blabber 'n' Smoke

Unlike the glut of holiday compilations, overpriced box sets and repackaged deluxe editions, "Four Chords and a Lie", the first solo album from Mark Utley (Magnolia Mountain), received a late-year push from This Is American Music. This follows Utley’s recent acclaim via two nominations for his hometown Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. The first for Best Folk/Americana album for Magnolia Mountain’s "Beloved", the second for his contribution as singer/songwriter on the "Music for the Mountains 2" compilation.

I been thinkin’ and drinkin’ and losin’ my mind
And drownin’ my sorrow in whiskey and wine
For a damned fool on a barstool, the hours crawl by
‘Cause you left me with nothin’ but time

Released in July, "Four Chords and a Lie" is simple and familiar, the ten originals split between Magnolia Mountain splinter group Bulletville and Utley performing solo don’t provide much differentiation; this is for the best as the album is a cohesive collection of Telecaster twang, pedal steel and honky tonk piano which highlight Utley’s understated bar stool poetry of love (“Blackbird on a Wire”), lust (“Little Black Dress”) and libations (“Not All Right Together”).

Let’s be not all right together
Darlin’, one night at a time

One long slow dance, "Four Chords and a Lie" is as country as country once was, bypassing the focus group-tested formula spoon fed to today’s commercial masses and served straight up. These songs are meant to be heard amidst both neon bar room glow and a barren moonlit road. "Four Chords and a Lie" further justifies the recent accolades bestowed upon Utley for his consistency throughout 2013, proving authenticity can still be rewarded. - Bucket Full of Nails