In the last year, the Mississippi Rail Company has been generating some buzz for its live show, and its debut album, Coal Black Train, hints at what people are hearing in concert. The piano/upright bass/drums trio takes a youthful, rowdy approach to piano-based roots music, which requires some nerve in New Orleans. Travers Geoffray doesn’t try to compete with the city’s piano icons, but he’s not intimidated by them either and attacks the keyboard with welcome enthusiasm.
The trio makes the blues its home base, but its impulses are rock-oriented. The band’s not going for depth of feeling or the epitome of technique; it’s going for excitement and drama and finds it on “Kill the Devil” and the insistent “The Best Goodbye.” When the Mississippi Rail Company doesn’t, it’s not for lack of trying. Songs such as “Whiskey Drink” suggest that making one more friend might be useful to flesh out the sound when piano’s essential to the song’s basic structure. Or, that song and a few others suggest that a more physical, robust piano sound could give the recorded versions more muscle.
Lyrically, the Company’s working with common material, but Geoffray never sells himself short and presents the familiar tropes as if they express his innermost feelings. They’re just lyrics, and that sort of honesty and clarity of purpose is refreshing. Mississippi Rail Company’s got a few things to figure out, but it’s off to a promising start.
