Tressel In

CD REVIEW: The Tressels' Bourbon Legend

by John Vettese

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Published: Mar 23, 2010

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album review

Somebody: Buy Butch Tressel a citywide special when his band plays The Blockley (March 26). The dude deserves your congrats: His slammin' rootsy five-piece just dropped an album steeped in the working-class grit of Neil Young's Freedom years and the punky carefree joie de vivre of The Replacements. Catchy stuff. Witty, too: On "Stolen Kiss" he growls, "Me and my bank account, we're doing just fine/ Except for the fact that we're both empty inside." In the rambling shuffle of "Brothel Blues," he heckles a cover band demanding, "November Rain" and yells, "Jesus saves" at an aloof preacher, concluding, "The road to hell is paved with loudmouths just like me." That's the other thing: Self-effacing Catholic guilt is a big part of Drexel Hill's The Tressels, most notably showing through on the meditative "Don't Look Down." He'll need that drink, as do Lenten Catholics the world across, to ease the tension.

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