Bluegrass-country-folk meets…Pink Floyd. Um, sorry?

Yep, that’s correct. Poor Man’s Whiskey, a quintet from San Francisco, known for their ‘zany on-stage shenanigans’, have cleverly re-interpreted the songs from Floyd’s all-time classic ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ on their latest album.  Appropriately dubbed ‘Dark Side of the Moonshine’, the album has two discs, the first of which is the zesty interpretation of the songs from the Floyd original, whilst the second contains several tracks of their own composition.

Now, in order to provide an accurate review of their Floyd facade, it would be helpful if I were familiar with the original album. Unfortunately, Pink Floyd was a phase I bypassed. But, never fear, this is where sixteen-year old musical know-it-alls come in handy: my younger brother, Alex. On the first listen, he’s pleasantly surprised by this unique interpretation: bluesy, instrumentals with an incredible mix of the fiddle, guitar, excessive playing of the banjo and the occasional incorporation of the incredible ‘Theremin’. Though Alex stubbornly insists that ‘the original is better’, he is nonetheless impressed.

As for me, I found the whole experience of disc one very enjoyable, despite my limited exposure to the originals. Stand-outs include the opening, ‘Speak to me/ Breathe’ and the epic ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ (also my brother’s fave). Meanwhile, ‘Whiskey’ provides a quirky alternative to Pink Floyd’s original ‘Money’, but opening the song with a rhythm of dry-retching might not be to everybody’s taste… The seven-minute ‘Time’ is also particularly catchy.

The second disc, however, disappoints in comparison to the first. Unfortunately my pre-conceptions about the country music genre have not been amended in these nine tracks. Many of the songs are fairly bland and it’s hard to see a marked difference between them and the videos my mum watches on the Country Music Channel.

This is not to say that it’s all bad, because it’s not. ‘Alley Tramp’ contains a very strong horn section, and alongside the harmonic chorus of vocals a very creative, catchy song is produced. The instrumental ‘Caroline Daisy’ is also worth a listen, showing off the band-members’ clear musical talent. The rest of the album is fairly bland, but still bearable. And, to give the boys some credit, they sound like they have a good sense of fun. ‘Whiskey in Heaven’ reminds us all to drink-up ‘while we’re still here’, while the central character of ‘Rock Star on the Weekend’ declares that he’s ‘a mother-truckin’, whiskey drinkin’, marijuana smoking, banjo playin’, northern California hippy red-neck’.

I guess a country-sider’s life wouldn’t be so dull afterall.

Disc One Score: 8 / 10.
Disc Two Score: 5 / 10.

Whole album:
The standard of the first disc far outweighs the shortcomings in the second, so I’ll say 7 / 10.